Merlin at Hogwarts, Book 2
by weir'wyvern-85
Summary: Merlin is back for his second year of Hogwarts, but it looks like it will be even more difficult then his last. With crazy new teachers, monstrous creatures, and upheaval at home, Merlin is going to have a very interesting year. More familiar faces will be returning and Uther will be showing his true colors. I DO NOT OWN MERLIN OR HARRY POTTER
1. Chapter 1

AN: **Sequel to Merlin at Hogwarts, if you haven't you should read that first. Warning,**

**This scene has some violence in it! Enjoy and review.**

Merlin sat on the many swing sets in his local park. He had been home for a few weeks, and it had been just as awful as he had imagined.

Arthur was back to his usual self, being the self-proclaimed prince of their household who he felt Merlin should cater to his every whim.

The warm friendship that had grown between the two brothers over there time in Hogwarts had not completely disappeared, he seemed more concerned about Merlin's health, even more concerned about his whereabouts. Since Quirrell, Arthur had made it his business to know where Merlin was at all times.

Morgana was her usual self, she still had her nightmares, usually being unable to remember them. She may have been a little cooler towards Uther, but Merlin thought was just a teenage girl thing. Uther did not.

Uther was even less concerned with Merlin's wellbeing than he had been. Before he made sure to keep him presentable, took him out with Morgana and Arthur on any business related venture- he wanted to make a good impression. Now he generally ignored him or treated him even more like a servant. He never took him out with them, the only place he let him go, and that by him, was to the park.

Uther could not outright shun Merlin, being a very important man in the business world, someone who was even on speaking terms with the minister, he could not let the public think he was being any less than a loving father to Merlin. That was the reason for leaving him behind so much.

Now that he had decided to ignore him, Merlin was looking scruffier than his father usually allowed. He allowed his hair to hang longer, and he wore more baggy clothes- more often than not accompanied by his neck scarf.

In a way, it was somewhat of a relief not to have to try and impress his business friends, but it was also depressing to know that he was effectively saying he wanted nothing to do with him. By taking Morgana and Arthur, which made Arthur uncomfortable as he could not see Merlin, with him all the time was also saying he did not want Merlin around _his_ kids.

Merlin sighed into the dark air, the streetlights having come on half an hour ago. He was not really worried, nothing happened in this town. It was safe enough for him to be sitting out here by himself.

He looked around to see none of the other usual visitors then remembered the town council meeting that night that most of the residents liked to attend. Uther, of course was on the board, and though it was not supposed to have a direct leader, it was him and everyone knew it.

He looked up at the sky to see the moon hanging between the clouds, a small crescent shining. Merlin hopped off the swing and started making his way home.

Uther and the others would probably be getting back soon, and it was unlikely Uther would be happy if he came in after them, and Merlin knew Arthur would freak out.

It was strange though, Uther had actually suggested he go to the park while they were at the meeting. He had not been planning it, but it did sound inviting.

When he told Uther that was what he was going to do, Morgana had given him the tiniest shake of her head. She looked ready to scream a protest, but then looked at Uther with the strangest look in her eyes, something so foreign for her Merlin was sure he had imagined it- fear.

He heard the sound of footsteps and looked back to see two men walking along together at a fast pace. He moved over to one side, they would overtake him in a moment, and would probably want by.

Merlin turned back to his thoughts, once again picturing Morgana's face when she looked at Uther. When he had first seen it, he had thought the expression foreign, but really, it was only strange to see it during the day. He had seen that face many times in the middle of the night when he had ran into her rooms after she had started screaming from … one of her… nightmares….

Merlin once again turned around to look at the men, they were closer, but they had yet to pass him.

Morgana had given Uther that look just after he had suggested for Merlin to go to the park. She had just shook her head at him for him to say no, and now that he thought about it, Uther had made sure the two siblings had not been alone in a room until they had left.

Merlin's back stiffened and his pace fastened, he needed to get away from these men.

He understood now, Morgana had had a vision. Uther knew she had visions and Uther knew that Merlin often went to the park on his own. He knew he would be somewhere with a lot of witnesses, even if anyone knew of his less than favorable attitude for his adopted son, they could never know that he blamed him for turning his true children into Wizards.

Morgana had been cooler toward Uther, and now Merlin remembered the threat the man had made the day he had boarded the train for Hogwarts ""_What I'm getting at is, you changed them, and if this school which you got them enrolled in changes them to the point that they aren't my children anymore- you _will _regret it_".

At first he could not believe that Uther would go any farther than making his home life somewhat harder, but really, Uther had always had things against the unexplained. Perhaps having his children recognized as Wizards was just the final straw.

He tried walking faster, but his pursuers just did the same, keeping up with him easily. He was just about to start running when he felt one of the men's hands on his shoulder, stopping him and turning him around. His back was pushed up against a brick wall that lined the sidewalk, the rough rock pressing against his skin through his T-shirt.

"What do you want?" he asked sounding braver than he felt. It was not nearly as terrifying as having his body controlled by Quirrell, but he would be lying if he said his blood was not pumping much faster than normal.

"We know what you are boy" hissed the man who had him pressed against the wall. His breathe smelled, and though Merlin had not smelled it very many times- Uther only having the occasional glass of alcohol- he could smell it heavily on the breath of these men.

"We don't take kindly to you messin' with our homes with your weirdness" the other said.

Merlin was starting to panic. "How could these muggles possibly know what he was, he had not even taken his wand from the house since he had been back from Hogwarts.

"I have no idea what you're talking about…please, let me go" he said.

"Playing dumb?" the second one asked, leaning closer "that's even worse"

"We heard what you've done, makin' things float, makin' things turn into other things, prob'ly been messin' with our minds. I bet you're the reason my wife's been runnin' off with that scum" the first one said lifting Merlin off his feet, the rock behind him pressing deeper into his skin.

"You're… crazy, I haven't done anything" Merlin choked around the collar of his shirt which was digging into his neck, cutting off his air supply.

"I bet you're right," the other said "we ought'a teach him not to go messin' with us normal folk" he took Merlin's shirt in his own hands, the first dropping his away, and brought Merlin away from the wall only to forcefully push him back against it, the force taking Merlin's breath.

The man dropped Merlin at their feet. He tried to lift himself up, but one of the men's feet came down on his back, pushing him back onto the ground with his heavy boot. The laughed at the 'oof' Merlin let out.

He felt the foot leave and then a pressure on the back of his neck as he was lifted back up to face them. His eyes were watering and he hardly saw the fist as it came into the side of his jaw. Whatever the men had been drinking, it was enough to keep them from hitting Merlin with their full strength, he was sure his jaw would bruise, but he did not think it was broken.

Another punch, this one landing on his right eye, had him falling back to the ground as the hand that had been holding him up had let go. One of the men kicked out, hitting Merlin on his side, impacting his ribs, and he was sure he heard a crack.

"En'gh" he croaked and the two men laughed.

"What was that, couldn' hear yeh!" one said humorously.

Moving his jaw back and forth before talking, he glared up at the men and said in the most serious voice he could muster, and with all the anger he felt at the moment, that was a lot, he spoke again "I said, that is ENOUGH!"

That familiar power that had come to him time and again before now was once again released, the familiar heat behind his eyes as his irises turned a brilliant gold. The two men flew back across the street, landing in someone's yard, one of them in a rosebush.

Merlin used the wall to pick himself up, steadying his weight against it as he tried to breath past his broken rib. He looked up and down the street, and there, someone stood gaping at him _not good._

With a sigh, he started walking, going towards home, he would worry about the consequences later, right now, he just wanted to find his bed.

Merlin did not know when he how he had made it to his house, or even when, but he did know that when he got there, there was an old man sitting on his front porch. He had silver hair that hung down to his shoulders and he was wearing red robes that screamed magic.

The man stood as Merlin stumbled up the steps and even caught him as he almost fell onto the wooden floor of the porch "Who are you?"

"I'm Gaius, what's happened to you?!" the man asked worriedly.

"Gaius! I've been waiting to meet you… I'm Merlin" the boy said before falling into unconsciousness in the man's arms.


	2. Chapter 2

He did not know how he had made it here, but Merlin was lying in his bed. The ache he had in his head, the one on his eye and the one on his jaw were gone. His ribs were still sore and he could feel something wrapped around his chest.

His room was dark and his sheets had been pulled over him. He looked around trying to find what had woken him up when he heard "Gaius?"

"Hello Uther" it was the voice of the grey haired man that had caught him on the porch. "Sorry I let myself in, it was a bit of an emergency".

"Emergency," he paused a moment "go to your rooms" Merlin could imagine his sibling's grudging looks as they walked away. His door was open just enough to let in a crack of light from the hallway as well as the conversation of the two men. "What are you talking about?"

"I found your son coming home from somewhere, he literally fell in to my arms. He was in a frightening state, his face bruised, a broken rib… I'm surprised he made it back from wherever he was. I was able to treat him of course, I've already healed the bruises on his face, and his rib will be healed by morning".

"Thank you Gaius, that is good to hear, is he awake?"

"Not when I left him, and you should let him rest"

"Of course, I can't thank you enough, but I have to wonder, why were you here?" Uther asked just as pleasantly as if he were talking to one of his business associates.

"I actually came to meet Merlin" he answered, repeating what he had said in his letter.

"Merlin, why?" Uther asked.

"I heard he had been accepted into Hogwarts, and I know you did not know this, but I knew his mother, I wanted to help him with anything I could".

"That was noble of you" Uther replied steadily.

"I also intended to help your other children as well, I heard they had been enrolled as well".

"Yes, they have, however-"

"Are you thinking of not letting them return?" Gaius inquired and Merlin was ready to leap out of bed to make sure that was not the case.

"I'm not sure it is the best influence on _my _children" _his_ children Merlin thought, _then did he still intend to send me?_

_ "_And what of Merlin, did you intend to let him go back, or did you think you wouldn't have to worry about that by then?"

"What are you saying Gaius?" Uther asked, voice dropping dangerously, and Merlin had to agree with his question.

"What happened to Merlin. Was it really an accident, we were friends once you remember, until I was accepted into Hogwarts. You started to shun me then, acted as though I were less then you in some way,… then what happened with your sister. She was accepted as well, and when she came back the next year, she found you had made a new group of friends, friends that seemed oddly aggressive towards her"

"I have no idea what you mean" Uther replied.

"No, you have no idea that your hatred of magic runs so deep that you try to eradicate it where ever you go. Whenever you hear that word, your mind starts thinking of ways of getting rid of it. That's what happened to Merlin, you made some more friends, probably let it slip Merlin had a few special talents, made them think he was using it against them" Merlin had put his hand over his mouth so he could not make any noise. It was so close to what he had thought at the park, all that was left was for Uther to admit to it.

"You're wrong" Uther said back and Merlin was not sure what to think "I did not intend for them to kill him or whatever you were implying. My goal was for them to make him prove what he was, all it would take is one person to see him use his magic. From there, some rumors, and I'll have this whole town turned against witchcraft, from there, the whole county, then further. I'll have everyone know about your existence, then you won't be such a threat, and if that involves that boys sacrifice, I'm more than willing to let that happen".

Merlin wanted to cry, but the tears would not come. He could only lay there and stare blankly at the ceiling. Uther really had told those men about him, put it in their mind to hurt him, and he had done just what he wanted. He saw the face of the woman that had seen him in his mind and he wanted nothing more than to go back in time, to listen to Morgana, to not have used his magic, anything.

"I'm taking him. In the morning, he's leaving this place, I won't leave him with you" Gaius said simply "I'll be back, and I'll have him pack his bags, and he'll come to live with me".

Merlin could not let the man leave, instead, he crawled out of bed and walked across his room and opened the door "I don't want to wait that long".

"Merlin?" Uther asked and he actually looked ashamed that the boy had heard what he had said.

"Can I go with you now Gaius?" He asked, ignoring the man he had seen as his father figure for the past eleven years.

"Of course, pack your bags, we'll leave soon" he said kindly looking down at the boy.

"What about Arthur and Morgana?" Merlin asked, worried about his siblings.

Uther looked ready to throw a fit, and likely would have if Morgana had not come out of her room right them "We'll be fine Merlin, he wouldn't hurt _us_"

"Morgana, how much of that did you hear, and Arthur…?" Morgana looked at her father, Merlin could see the anger in her eyes, worse than normal.

"Your precious son didn't hear a thing, as far as I know. If he had he'd probably be out here trying to get Merlin to stay, he doesn't seem to understand how bad of a father you really are".

"Morgana!" Uther shouted, looking more confident now that he knew Arthur was not listening in "go back to your room"

"You sure there aren't any magic hating muggles in there waiting to jump me?" she asked, but did as she said after giving Merlin a hug.

"Get him out of here!" Uther said, no longer looking at Merlin.

Gaius tilted his head "of course"

"I need to say goodbye to Arthur" Merlin said looking up at Gaius who looked at Uther.

"The boy will worry if you don't let him know where his brother is, I assume you were told of all that happened during the school term?" Gaius questioned him.

"You mean the fact that my son was put through seven dangerous enchantments, almost faced the murderer of my wife who it turns out also had magic, all for this boy! Yes, I know what happened. Be done quick" he addressed this last part to Merlin.

He nodded and walked to his brother's door which was at the end of the hallway, he could hear music playing so he just walked in, if he had not heard the last part of that conversation, he would not hear Merlin knock.

Arthur noticed when the boy walked in, and reached over to turn his music down "Don't you know how to knock?"

"You wouldn't have heard it" Merlin told him and Arthur gave him a look that said that was the point. "I needed to tell you something, it's really important".

"What is it, did you see a dog while you were at the park or something?"

"Not a dog, but that isn't what I wanted to tell you, remember the letter I got from that man named Gaius?"

"Yeah, that's who father's talking to right?"

"Yeah… I'm going to be living with him for a while- until it's time to back to Hogwarts" he could not say forever, he could not tell Arthur he would not be coming back.

Merlin expected yelling, arguing, something, not silence. Arthur looked stunned, and upset "I don't understand"

"He offered to let me get to know a little more about the Wizarding world, that's what he's doing" Merlin said quietly, it was not a complete lie.

"By taking you away?" Arthur asked looking into his brother's eyes "do you want to go with him?"

"Yes Arthur, and for more than just that, but… I can't tell you why… I just…." Merlin trailed off, he did not want Arthur to know what had happened to him because of his father, it would hurt him.

Arthur turned around and stared out of his window, leaning against his wall "Whatever, it's your choice, do what you want"

Merlin was stunned, it hurt worse than when those men had kicked him in the side "Arthur?"

"Go on then, you said goodbye, no reason to stand here any longer than you have to" Arthur said harshly, and Merlin did the only thing he could, he left.


	3. Chapter 3

Life with Gaius was interesting to say the least. The old man had to work often, being one of the head doctors at St. Mungo's hospital, but it was still a wonderful place to live.

It was cluttered with potions and ingredients, it smelled of old books, and it practically screamed magic. The dishes would wash themselves, the table would set itself, all with the wave of Gaius's wand.

When he was home, Gaius would tell Merlin all about the Wizarding world, stories Wizarding families would tell to their kids, things Gaius had seen personally, spells Merlin would learn in his later years at Hogwarts.

When the man was not there, Merlin spent his time reading through the many books that could be found all over the house, books on magical remedies, on potions, on magical creatures, on curses and counter curses. It was wonderful.

The one thing that was not there was Arthur. Merlin regretted how their last conversation had gone and he had yet to get the courage up to send him letter, let alone write one, to try and fix it.

The room he was given was modest, not as large as he had had at Uther's, but it was more homely. He could work on his homework without feeling like Uther would walk in and ground him for it- something the man had done his first week back from school.

Gaius on the other hand, encouraged him to do his homework, even offered to help, which Merlin readily accepted. With his help, Merlin felt himself understanding each subject more clearly, especially potions.

At first, that had been the toughest subject for him, but the way Gaius taught him, he found himself understanding the different names of herbs, knowing which substances should never be mixed together, and he found he was really interested in it.

One morning, as Merlin and Gaius were sitting down for breakfast, an owl flew through the kitchen window and dropped a letter in front of the boy. "It's a letter from the school… my school list…I"

"They tend to keep track of their students" Gaius said amused as the boy looked for words.

"Gaius, I just remembered, the night you found me, I used magic, but I'm not supposed to use it outside of school…"

"If it was accidental, then it is not likely to count against you, though I am surprised you did not receive a letter from the Ministry"

"So, I'm not in trouble?" he asked.

"It does not seem that way, but if anyone were to ask you about it, you were using it in self-defense which the law allows, accidental or not" Gaius said calmly "now, what do you need for this year?"

Merlin looked through his letters and said "A bunch of books by a wizard named… Gilderoy Lockhart. Do you know who he is?"

"I've heard the name, but I've never read any of his work… I wonder…" Gaius said looking off into space as another owl flew into the room, a letter in its beak.

_ Merlin,_

_Have you seen the new list for the school year, I can't believe it! I'll be going into London next week to get all my books, and I've sent a letter to Ron and possibly Harry to meet there as well. I'm sorry to hear about your and Arthur's falling out, though it sounds like a good thing you got out of that house. I really think you should tell him why you left, I mean really it sounded like a witch hunt and he could be in just as much danger if his father lets it get too out of control. _

_Hoping to see you soon,_

_Hermione Granger_

_Hermione Granger_

"Gaius, can we go to Diagon Alley to get my books next week, my friends are planning to meet then"

Gaius looked thoughtful then finally nodded "I think we could go then"

"Great!" Merlin said as he quickly wrote a reply to Hermione saying he would be there.

A week later found Merlin and Gaius entering Diagon Alley through the entrance in the back of the Leaky Cauldron. The street was far more crowded than the day Merlin had first come, people pushing past each other, going in and out of stores.

"C'mon Merlin, I think it's time you opened your own account at Gringotts" Gaius said leading the young boy through the throng of people.

They made their way up to the bank where a bushy haired girl ran right into Merlin, pulling him into a bone crushing hug "Oh, it's so good to see you!"

"You too" Merlin panted as she let go of him "have you seen anyone else?"

"No, not ye- wait, there's Harry. Harry! Harry! Over here!" she yelled bouncing up and down waving to him. The dark haired boy looked over and waved before making his way through the crowd which was fairly easy when you are walking with Hagrid.

"Oh it's so good to see you two again- Harry what happened to your glasses, are you coming to Gringotts?" she asked in a single breath when the boy had made it over to them.

"Hey Harry" Merlin said casually.

"I'm going as soon as I find the Weasleys, hey Merlin, where's Arthur"

"Ah… well, we're sorta not living together right now, I sent you a letter" Merlin replied awkwardly.

Harry rolled his eyes in understanding and said something under his breath that sounded a lot like "stupid Dobby". "So you're not living with your dad anymore, that has to be a good thing"

"Yeah, if I could have told Arthur why, he thinks I just up and abandoned him, we haven't talked since" Merlin explained.

"What happ-" he was cut off by a man with red hair followed by the Weasley brothers running up to him.

"Harry, we _hoped_ you had only gone a grate to far" the man Merlin presumed to be Ron's father said before turning to notice him and Gaius "Gaius, is that you?"

"Hello Arthur, out shopping for school are we?" Gaius replied kindly looking over at the boys who were now talking to Harry.

"Yes, what about you, I didn't know you had any kids" he said looking to Merlin and holding out his hand "I'm Arthur Weasley, nice to meet you".

"Merlin" he replied taking his hand. He saw recognition in the man's eyes.

"Ah, I believe you met my wife last year, she told me the circumstances, I have to say I was sorry to hear such a tale" Arthur said sincerely "and like she told you, if there is anything we can do to help, you can come to us".

"That's actually why he's with me. The problem escalated the day I came to meet him, I couldn't leave him there, so I've taken him in as my ward" Gaius explained.

"Ah, similar with what has happened this summer with young Harry, my boys saw fit to rescue him from his aunt and uncle's house. They had put _bars_ on his windows, _bars!_"

Merlin looked at Harry in shock, but it was obvious the boy did not know what the adults were talking about. Their conversation quickly ended when Ron's father noticed Hermione's muggle parents standing awkwardly to the side and he eagerly went to talk to them.

.

.

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** AN: Please review, I'm not sure if I like the way this one is turning out, and if you do not want me to waste my time rewriting these parts, or if you just really like the way they have been written, I suggest you tell me. **


	4. Chapter 4

It had not taken very long to set up his own account, Gaius giving him a small amount to start his savings in the vault. He also had a small amount Uther had given him when he had left. Merlin was not entirely sure why the man had given him anything at all, maybe guilt, maybe as a gift for finally leaving, maybe as a way to help an old friend who had just taken on a new burden.

In the end, it did not matter either way, he exchanged the money for the Wizarding currency and took it to buy his books with. When they had done, everyone met back outside, though they were all looking to go in different directions.

Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were going to a second hand robe store, while Mr. Weasley insisted on taking the Granger's for a drink in the Leaky Cauldron. The twins had spotted their friend Lee Jordon and wanted to go with him while Percy wanted to check out a book store. Even Gaius had a shop he wanted to visit filled with books on magical medicine.

They all agreed to meet at Flourish and Blotts in an hour so that they could buy their school books and went their separate ways. Merlin walked with Harry, Hermione, and Ron down the street, getting Harry to tell him why he had not sent any letters over the summer after which Harry had Merlin tell him and Ron why he was no longer staying with Uther.

"He did what?!" Ron had nearly screamed and Merlin tried to calm him down.

"It really wasn't that bad, I mean it was only two men, and I got them off easy enough"

"You fell unconscious!" Harry said.

"I made it home first" he shrugged.

"How you've managed to survive this long…" Ron trailed off shaking his head at his friend and Merlin could not help but think of the many times Arthur had said something like that.

They stopped and bought four large strawberry-and-peanut-butter ice creams, paid for by Harry and Merlin. The four friends ate them happily as they walked up the street examining the incredible shop windows as they went by.

They met Fred and George and Percy as they went through different stores, Hermione dragging them to get new quills and parchment and ink for school. Other than these things, they had most of the supplies they needed besides their books and more potions ingredients which Hermione drug them to get next.

When the hour was up, the four kids made their way to Flourish and Blotts. The bookshop was covered in people trying to make their way inside, a flustered looking man standing outside trying to calm them down.

"Calm down ladies… Don't push, there… mind the books…" Merlin felt bad for the man as the women around Mrs. Weasley's age tried to barge past him.

"What's going on?" Ron asked.

"Gilderoy Lockhart, he's doing a book signing!" Hermione squealed reading the sign on the window "We get to meet him, I mean he's written almost all the books on the list" she gushed.

Merlin had no idea how they managed it, but they pushed their way into the bookshop, managed to each grab a copy of _The Standard Book of Spells Grade 2 _and made their way to where the Weasleys, Granger's and Gaius were standing.

"Oh there you are, good" Mrs. Weasley said patting her hair as though it had fallen out of place "we'll be able to see him in a minute…" she was looking up to where a table apparently set up for Lockhart to sign books as there was a large line snaking its way up to it.

A few seconds later, the room quieted as a man in forget-me-not blue with a matching pointed hat set at an angle on his head. He had startling white teeth and wavy blonde hair- Merlin finally understood why these witches were going so crazy, he was some perfect looking celebrity like the muggle girls would fawn over.

There was a short man who looked like he was having one of the worst days in his life as he hefted a large camera, dancing around the room taking pictures, pushing right between Merlin and Ron almost knocking them over. "Move it, this is for the _Daily Prophet_-"

"Big deal" Ron huffed, righting himself as Harry helped Merlin back to his feet. Gilderoy Lockhart heard him as he looked up, looked passed Ron, swept over Merlin, and landed on Harry.

"It _can't_ be Harry Potter?" he said leaping to his feet. The crowd moved aside, Merlin's elbow still in Harry's hand from when he had helped him up and had been too shocked to let him go. Lockhart grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him up to the front of the room, Harry tightening his hold on Merlin and pulling him along as well.

Lockhart had pulled him forward and was shaking hands with him as the photographer was taking his picture and Lockhart threw and arm around Harry's shoulder, finally noticing Merlin "And who might you be, one of Mr. Potter's friends?"

"Erm, yeah, Merlin Pendragon" he muttered, his face going red, his ears burning under everyone's scrutiny.

"Merlin! What a name to live up to- I suppose you and Harry are the best of friends then?" he asked with a bright smile.

Harry and Merlin both looked at each other "Er… yeah…". They were not really that close, Ron was Harry's best friend, and Merlin was currently unsure of who had that title for him, but they knew better than to contradict someone in front of so many people.

"Well, now that we've met Mr. Pendragon here, I think now's the perfect time to tell you fine ladies and gentlemen my latest news! I have been sitting on this for some time now!

"When young Harry and Merlin here came into Flourish and Blotts together, they only wanted to buy my autobiography- which I shall now present them both with a copy, free of charge-" the crowd applauded "They had _no idea_ that they would shortly be getting much, much more than my book, _Magical Me_. They and their schoolmates will, in fact, be getting the real magical me. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have the great pleasure and pride in announcing that this September, I will be taking up the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"

The crowd went wild with cheering and Merlin found himself being presented with Lockhart's book _Magical Me_ which had not even been on his book list. He rolled his eyes as he was shoved back through the crowd and finally ended up with Gaius who looked ready to laugh at him, but thankfully held it in.

"I'll go get your other books Merlin, I doubt you want to go back up there right now" the old man offered.

"Thanks a lot Gaius" the man smiled and walked off to join the crowd.

Merlin heard Harry's voice and turned to see him giving his complete collection to Ginny, insisting he would buy his own, just as another voice interrupted.

"Bet you loved that eh, Potter?" Draco Malfoy asked walking up to them with a sneer, his sister Morgouse right behind him. She left his side to come up to Merlin.

"Felt a bit out of place up there did you? I saw those ears of yours turning red, hard to miss them of course" she taunted. He had to beat down the urge to cover his ears, though he could feel the heat coming back to them.

"Jealous that it wasn't you I guess?" Merlin asked back.

"Mmm, Morgana sent me an interesting letter this last week. You've been forced out of your home by your muggle father, and you left her and your brother behind after what he did to you. How could you just leave her there?" she looked furious.

"He wouldn't hurt them, they actually mean something to him" he argued, though her comment had stung, what had Morgana said to her exactly?

"Even so, he obviously doesn't like those with magic, and it's just a matter of time before he starts taking it out on them as well, and if Morgana is hurt because of you-"

She was interrupted by Arthur Weasley pushing Lucias Malfoy into a bookshelf Morgouse sighing "Well, that's dignified".

The two men grappled until Hagrid came wading through the sea of people and pulled them apart, Mr. Weasley sporting a split lip and Mr. Malfoy having been hit in the eye by a book, still holding a book he had grabbed out of Ginny's cauldron.

He thrust the book back into her cauldron and jerked away from Hagrid "Take your book back, girl- it's the best your father can get with you- Come, Draco, Morgouse"

"See you at school, Pendragon" Morgouse said lightly as she followed her father out of the store.

Mrs. Weasley was so angry, she did not stop lecturing her husband until she had to say goodbye to Hermione and Merlin as they left through the Leaky Cauldron with their families "Bye dears, it was nice to see you again Merlin, and nice to meet you Hermione!" before starting again on Arthur.

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**Thanks for the reviews, I'm going to leave the chapter alone and just continue with the story, I hope you enjoy it! Some tension between Merlin and Arthur next as they see each other for the first time after their fight.**


	5. Chapter 5

September first finally came, though Merlin was not half as ready to leave for school as he had been last time. He had grown used to Gaius's company and his knowledge of everything, but he did want to see his friends again- especially Arthur.

"Gaius, do you think Arthur and Morgana will be able to get to the Station on time?" Merlin asked his guardian "Uther said he had not been planning on letting them come back".

He felt somewhat guilty he had not thought of that before, there was a chance he would not be seeing either of his siblings this year.

"I have a feeling you'll be seeing them, if the letters I got from Pomona Sprout were anything to go by" he said happily as they walked out to where Gaius kept his car, an old model, but he rarely used it, only when he was going somewhere in the muggle world- like a train station.

"Why did Madam Sprout send you a letter?" Merlin asked.

"She had heard you were no longer living with Uther and were under my care. She asked how you were and how it had happened. I told her, she's very concerned for you and the others, she replied and told me she was going to be sure that they were on the train to Hogwarts".

Merlin felt himself smile in relief, he had been thinking about how horrible Hogwarts would be if every second he was there, he was thinking of Arthur and Morgana stuck in the muggle world with Uther.

The drive did not take long, and Gaius and Merlin were standing in front of the scarlet engine before he knew it "I want you keeping up with your grades understand?"

"I'll do my best Gaius" Merlin told him.

"That's all I can ask for I suppose" the old man said then pulled Merlin into a hug "you better go and find a seat, it'll be leaving soon"

"See you later Gaius" Merlin called and ran off for the train. The train was almost completely full, and Merlin was sure he was never going to find a seat when he heard a familiar voice.

"Merlin! In here" he turned to see Gwen waving him into a compartment and he followed gladly. She was sitting with a small girl, obviously a first year by the way she was acting- nervous and shy. She had long dark hair that hung straight down to the small of her back. She had blue eyes that kept looking around the compartment, never staying on something for long.

"Oh, this is Freya, she's a first year" Gwen said "and Freya, this is Merlin, he's really nice"

Freya looked up at him from under her eyelashes and said quietly "hello Merlin"

"Hi Freya" Merlin replied and sat down next to Gwen "are you excited about going to Hogwarts?"

"Nervous actually, I've never been on a train before you know, and around so many people with magic".

"Do you live with muggles then?" Gwen asked.

"No, I-" she started but was cut off as the compartment door was flung open and Morgana stepped in, not intentionally interrupting Freya.

"Gwen! Oh my goodness, is that you!"

"Morgana, it's so good to see you!" the two girls squealed and pulled each other into a hug.

"Glad to see I don't get such a warm welcome" Arthur said from behind his sister who was still blocking the door.

"Oh Arthur, I didn't see you, it's so good to be back isn't" Gwen asked happily.

"Yeah, if anybody can see me past my sister's over inflated ego" Arthur teased as Morgana finally made enough room for Arthur to come into the compartment.

Arthur and Merlin immediately made eye contact and looked away just as fast only saying each other's names in a way of greeting.

"Oh, sorry, this is Freya, she's a first year" Gwen said when they had sat back down.

"I'm Morgana" Morgana introduced herself, Arthur saying his own name.

"She was just-" Merlin was saying when he was cut off by someone else opening the door.

"I thought I heard the princess" Gwaine said looking at Arthur with amusement in his eye "hey Merlin, how was your summer?" he asked making a spot for himself next to his friend.

"Eventful" he said evasively, he had not sent his friend a letter about what had happened over the summer for a very good reason, if Arthur was overprotective, it was nothing compared to Gwaine.

They felt as the train pulled out of the station, and as it started gaining speed and Merlin still wanted to hear Freya's story "So, Freya-"

Again he was cut off as the compartment door was opened "Merlin, Arthur, Gwaine"

"Hey Hermione" Arthur said, Merlin smiling at her while Gwaine gave her a deep bow "My lady"

"Have any of you seen Ron or Harry, I can't find them anywhere… and well…."

"You don't know where else to sit?" guessed Gwen kindly and Hermione's cheeks turned pink.

"We can make room" Gwaine said scooting over and squishing Merlin between him and Morgana who was pushed against the other wall.

"It's getting pretty crowded in here" Morgana said pushing Merlin's elbow out of her side.

"Well, there's room in our compartment if you'd want to join us" said an annoyingly familiar voice from the door which had yet again been pulled open.

"Morgouse!" Morgana cried and leaped out of her seat "of course, it's been so long…" she trailed off as she followed the other Slytherin down the train.

"Glad to see it took her a moment before she ditched us" Arthur said into the quiet.

"It was getting crowded Arthur" Gwen said, trying not to agree with him.

"Sorry, I should have…" Hermione started, feeling a little out of place.

"Done just what you did, we don't mind, she would have ditched us anyway" Gwaine said kindly and Merlin nodded in agreement.

Finally, when the conversation and interruptions had died down, Merlin, who was now sitting across from the young first year asked "So Freya, where were you saying you came from?"

"Oh, right. Well, my family's from a very long line of druids. Our family tree can be traced back to the old days, back when wizards didn't use wands and our magic was connected to the earth… or that's what my gran likes to say, she raised me after my mom… well, after my mom and dad passed on" she explained, her voice quieting at the end.

"Druids?" Hermione asked "I didn't know there were any left"

"No, not many, and even we've forgotten the old teachings. We like to say we remember, but really it's just a few old stories that were probably always make-believe. Not many of us end up going to schools like Hogwarts, or really even have much to do with the rest of the wizarding community. Gran said with how few of us there are now, we should start accepting that we're a part of this world. When my letter came, she told me I should go, and I should make as many friends as I could, because you need friends to survive in this world, or any other".

"Well, you've already made one" Guinevere said kindly to the young girl who blushed but smiled back.

"More than one" Arthur said and Hermione nodded from where she sat.

"I could never leave a lonely lady by herself" Gwaine said, trying to act charming as usual.

"Of course, you have me as well" Merlin said with a goofy grin.

"Thanks" she said, still shy.

They continued to talk about their summers, Merlin and Arthur skidding around their less than happy separation, though Merlin did tell Gwen and Gwaine he was living with Gaius. When they asked how that had happened, he simply said the man had been a friend of his mother's and had offered him a place to stay for a while, Hermione giving him a pointed look which he ignored.

Arthur never brought their fight up, and he never tried to avoid Merlin, though when he spoke to him, if he did, his tone was cool and his emotions obvious. The others were obviously confused, but none of them said anything about it, though Freya would sometimes send Merlin looks that seemed to say she felt bad for him, which he was secretly grateful for.

Finally the train came to a stop, and Freya had to leave with the other first years, the second years following the older classmen to carriages that seemed to drive themselves that would take them up to the castle, the five friends still sitting together.


	6. Chapter 6

The feast had been just as good as ever, and Merlin watched as Freya was sorted into Hufflepuff where she sat next to Gwen. Merlin and the others, once they had heard about Harry and Ron's way of arrival, waited with all the other Gryffindor's to congratulate them, Gwaine asking if he could borrow the car sometime. When the boys had all went up into the second year dormitory, they demanded the two boys tell them the whole story.

The next morning, during breakfast, everyone started their day off with a laugh as Ron was given a howler from his mother. Despite not having known what they were before, Merlin thought they were rightly named as the letter's voice resounded all across the Great Hall. As bad as he felt for the red head, it was quite funny.

When Ginny Weasley, Ron's younger sister who Merlin had only briefly met before, heard her mother's voice yelling at her brother, she instinctively made herself small and shrunk behind Merlin who she had happened to be sitting next to, muttering "I'm so glad I'm not him".

Merlin silently agreed, but was distracted from saying so when Professor McGonagall came down the table of students handing out the new course schedules. They had double Herbology with Madam Sprout this morning, and Merlin was pleased, he wanted to thank Madam Sprout for helping Arthur and Morgana make it to school.

He walked with Gwaine and Arthur down to the greenhouses, where they found the rest of the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor students coming together. Arthur made no attempt to talk to Merlin, though he still would keep him in sight the best he could. It seemed their fight had not made him forget that his brother had almost been kidnapped by a crazy magical murder the year before.

Merlin and the others walked up to Gwen and Lancelot and Leon just as a very annoyed looking Madam Sprout walked up to them, bandages and gauze loaded in her hands, Gilderoy Lockhart next to her, holding only his too perfect smile. In the background, the kids could see the Whomping Willow, now sporting a few slings in its branches.

"Oh, hello there!" the man called out "Just been showing Professor Sprout…" Merlin tuned the man out as he and Arthur walked up to Professor Sprout.

"We'll help you Professor" Arthur said taking most of the load out of her arms, Merlin taking the rest in his.

"Thank you boys" she said tiredly then picked up her voice so the rest of the class could here "Greenhouse three today, chaps!"

There was some whispering as Madam Sprout led them to the advanced greenhouse where some of the more dangerous plants were kept. During their first year, they had only been in the first greenhouse.

"Harry! I've been wanting a word- you don't mind if he's a couple of minutes late, do you, Professor Sprout?" Before she could reply the way Merlin could see she wanted to, he cut her off saying "that's the ticket" and pulling Harry away from the rest of the class.

Professor Sprout led them into the greenhouse muttering all the way "nearly broke a whole 'nother limb off the poor tree… probably telling Potter he should have aimed lower… right towards the trunk… I never…" then she noticed Merlin and Arthur still holding the bandages "you can put those down over there boys, thank you again".

"Go ahead and line up along the table, that's it, make sure you all have a set of ear muffs" she instructed just as Harry slid into the door. Madam Sprout gave no notice as he slid into place between Ron and Hermione "We'll be repotting Mandrake today".

Merlin felt a chill go up his back at the mention of mandrakes, and he really hoped they would not be hearing their cries, though he had no idea why that thought had come into his head "Now, who can tell me the properties of the Mandrake?"

Without much surprise, Merlin saw Hermione's hand lift up "Mandrake, or Mandragora, is a powerful restorative. It is used to return people who have been transfigured or cursed to their original state".

"Excellent. Ten Points to Gryffindor, The Mandrake forms an essential part of most antidotes. It is also, however, dangerous, can anyone tell me why?"

"It can drive you mad" Merlin muttered under his breath, getting a strange look from Arthur and Gwaine who were standing on either side of him.

"The cry of the mandrake is fatal to anyone who hears it" Hermione went on.

"Precisely. Take another ten points. Now, the Mandrakes we have here are still very young" Professor Sprout explained as she pointed to a row of trays with many little purplish green plants growing in rows. As Gwen shuffled closer to Arthur so she could have a better look, Merlin felt the need to make sure she did not have a knife she was about to stab into his back.

"Everyone grab a pair of earmuffs" Professor Sprout instructed and the kids quickly abided. "When I tell you to, make sure they cover your ears completely. When I give you the thumbs up, you can take them off. Now, earmuffs on" Merlin pulled his pair over his ears, and they completely cut off all sense of hearing.

She grabbed the top of the plant by its stem, and Merlin found himself pushing down harder on his earmuffs, knowing he did not want to hear that plant scream, and she pulled. A small muddy baby came out of the soil, the leaves growing right out of its head. He saw it screaming, but he heard nothing, and he sighed in relief, taking his hands down.

Madam Sprout stuck the small wriggling creature into a pot and covered it with compost until only the leaves were visible then gave them the thumbs up to remove their earmuffs. "As our Mandrakes are only seedlings, their cries won't kill yet, however, the will knock you out for several hours, and as I'm sure none of you want to miss your first day back, make sure your earmuffs are securely in place while you work. I will attract your attention when it is time to pack up.

"Four to a tray- there is a large supply of pots here- compost in the sacks over there- and be careful of the Venomous Tentacula, it's teething".

Merlin, Arthur, Gwaine, and Gwen formed a group, Lancelot and Leon working with two other Hufflepuffs to pull out their own Mandrake's and repot them. Since the students had to keep on their earmuffs, there was not much talking going on in any of the groups. During the whole class, Merlin had to keep himself from sending Gwen suspicious looks like she was about to do something awful.

McGonagall's class was far easier for Merlin as he did not have to continuously worry about one of his friends attacking his brother. He did have to worry about whether he and his brother were ever going to get along again.

"Stop cheating Merlin" pouted Gwaine as Merlin let his eyes flare gold and his beetle turned into a shiny black button. Merlin smiled cheekily, but turned the button back again. He used the spell McGonagall taught them, and was thankful Gaius had helped him over the summer, or he was sure he would have forgotten everything. Arthur, it looked like, had done just that.

Once again sighing in frustration, Merlin offered to help which Arthur quickly refused "I'm not helpless Merlin".

Lunch came after that, and Merlin was especially grateful. It had not helped Arthur's mood when Merlin had made Gryffindor five points for being the first person to successfully transfigure the beetle, followed by Hermione.

"What do we've got this afternoon" Merlin heard Harry ask and groaned in harmony with Harry when Hermione answered "Defense Against the Dark Arts".

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** Please review, and I hope your enjoying my story. **


	7. Chapter 7

Merlin, Arthur, and Gwaine were sitting in the courtyard with Harry, Ron, and Hermione when a small brown haired Gryffindor first year came up to Harry asking for a signed photo.

"Really?" Arthur asked as Gwaine sniggered. They could see just how uncomfortable Harry was "just let him take the picture Harry".

"Handing out signed photos now, Potter?" Draco Malfoy sneered from behind Colin. Crabbe and Goyle were present as always, standing behind the smaller Slytherin, though they were also accompanied by Morgouse and Morgana.

"Don't forget to get his _best_ _friend_ in that picture, better yet, get a picture of all three of you, it'd be like you're a part of their group, right Merlin?" he felt himself turn red and really wanted to hide his face, but he did not want to let her win either.

"Why don't you ask to be in the picture Morgouse, you could send it back to your parents, show them you know the great Harry Potter" Merlin said back, and he noticed Morgana had to push down a smirk.

"Merlin, what are they talking about?" Arthur asked just as Gilderoy Lockhart came into the courtyard, loudly asking "who's giving out signed photos" before spotting Harry and sighing quietly "ah, shouldn't have asked. We meet again Harry!"

He came up to the boy's side and the five Slytherins moved back into the crowd. Lockhart put his arm around Harry's shoulder the way he had done in the bookshop so he could not get away "You can have a picture of the both of us- wait a minute," he turned around and spotted Merlin next to Arthur "ah, Merlin, come get in the picture"

Merlin tried to run, he really did, but Gwaine seemed to find the whole situation hilarious and pushed him up next to the others, and Lockhart put his other arm around Merlin. The boy was so embarrassed he did not even try to smile for the boy's picture.

When Colin started thanking them far to eagerly, Lockhart let Merlin loose, but kept a hold of Harry and walked him towards his classroom talking about something Merlin did not care to know about.

He quickly rejoined Arthur and Gwaine and they made their own way to the Defense classroom. "What was that about Merlin, why did Lockhart make you get into that picture?" Arthur demanded.

"Well, when I went to get my books for this year, I had met Ron, Harry and Hermione there. Lockhart was signing books, and when he saw Harry he jerked him up to the front for a picture together and Harry dragged me along so I was caught in the pictures. He just started saying we were best friends, probably trying to explain why I was marring his pictures" Arthur did not look overly pleased, but there was nothing to say, so he let it go.

They walked into the classroom to find Harry sitting in the very back with his collection of Lockhart's books sitting in front of him so he could not see the front of the class, Harry and Ron beside him. Merlin made their group sit in the desk right in front of the other trio, not wanting to be near Lockhart either.

When everyone was seated, Lockhart leaned over and grabbed one of his books from Neville's desk and pointed at the cover "Me."

"Didn't know that one" Gwaine whispered sarcastically to Merlin and Arthur who had to hold in their sniggers.

Lockhart went on "Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class,-"

"You didn't tell us he was a part of your order Merlin, one of your biggest fans is he?" Gwaine asked holding back laughs as did the others.

"- Most-Charming-Smile-Award, but I don't talk about that-"

"No, you just smile and wink about it" Merlin's face was going red from the effort it was taking him not to laugh.

"-But I didn't defeat the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!" he said obviously waiting for them to laugh. Seeing their opportunity, the three boys let out their growing laughter, Lockhart never suspecting they were laughing at how ridiculous he was. Everyone gave them strange looks, but the continued laughing until they had got it out of their system.

"Yes, yes. I see you've all bought a complete set of my books-well done, I thought we'd start today with a little quiz. Nothing to worry about- just to check how well you've read them, how much you've taken in-"

He handed out the papers then walked back to the front of the class "you have thirty minutes, start- now".

Merlin flipped the quiz over and read the first question _What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color?_

Merlin wanted to stand up and walk out of the classroom. He could tell he would not be learning anything from this man other than ways to get plenty of PR. The other fifty-six questions were just as ridiculous, though Merlin gave the quiz his best attempt. He was certain he was going to fail, when he had read the books, he had focused more on the spells and what had happened with the different creatures, not the tiny things about the man's personal life.

"Tut, tut- hardly any of you remembered my favorite color was lilac, I say so in _Year with a Yeti._ Only Hermione Granger remembered my greatest ambition was to rid the world of evil and market my own range of hair-care products. Ten points to Gryffindor Miss Granger".

He bent behind his desk and brought up a large covered cage to sit upon it "Now-be warned! It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to Wizardkind! You may find yourselves facing your worst fears in this room. Know only that no harm can befall you whilst I'm here. All I ask is that you remain calm".

Merlin found himself staring intently at the cage- the man knew how to make something sound interesting, there had to be some reason all of those women bought his books. "I must ask you not to scream. It might provoke them".

The whole class was holding its breath, leaning in to see what was in the cage. Lockhart took a hold of one corner, and dramatically threw the cover off.

"Yes, Freshly caught Cornish Pixies" Merlin looked at the blue creatures. They were like tiny humans with blue skin and pointy features, and Merlin could just imagine the devilish creatures holding staffs and flying to fast for the normal eye to see. He knew what the man was planning, and he knew the man was an idiot.

"They're not exactly _dangerous,_ are they" laughed Seamus Finnagan.

"Don't be so sure!" Merlin was shaking his head "Devilish tricky little blighters they can be!"

"_Don't do it, don't do it, prove you at least have some brains in that stupid head of yours"_ Merlin was saying under his breath.

"Right, let's see what you make of them!" he said, then opened the cage, just as Merlin had known he would.

_"Idiot!"_ The pixies zoomed out of the cage and began making as much chaos as they could. Some rushed into the windows, showering broken glass on the kids next to them. Others were amusing themselves by throwing books out of the windows that had not been broken, shredding papers and throwing pots of ink at the many pictures of Lockhart hanging around the room.

Everyone was ducking under their desks except for Neville who the pixies had grabbed by the ears and hung by the chandelier. Gwaine had of course said to Merlin he was surprised they had not tried to do that to him, as large as his ears were, Merlin rolled his eyes, but covered his ears just in case one of the pixies had heard the suggestion.

"Come on now, round them up, round them up, there only pixies" Lockhart called and Merlin wanted to hex the wavy haired buffoon. _"Peskipixie Pesternomi" _he chanted and waved his wands at the blue creatures.

It did nothing but make them laugh, and grab his wand to throw out the window. Their fearless teacher then ducked under his own desk, Neville and the chandelier falling next to him a minute later. The students and teacher stayed in their hiding spots a moment later until the bell rang, the students running out of the classroom for safety.

Having their luck, Harry, Merlin and the others were the last to get to the door and Lockhart called out to them "Well, Harry, Merlin, I'll just ask the two of you to nip the rest of them back into their cage then, thanks" he said then ran out of the door before them.

"Can you believe him?" Ron asked angrily.

"It's just a hands on activity" Hermione defended, sending a freezing charm at two pixies, stopping them in midair.

"That'll take forever" Merlin observed as the others tried to freeze each individual pixie. Instead, he focused on all the pixies and let the familiar warmth rush through him, his eyes turning gold and all the pixies stopped, falling to the ground. He winced as their tiny bodies made small thumps "didn't mean to do that".

"Whatever, they're out, let's get them into the cage and get out of here" Arthur said and started collecting pixies. The others agreed and followed suite.


	8. Chapter 8

The next morning, Merlin was woken up by Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor Quidditch captain bursting into their dorm and practically dragging Harry out of bed saying they were having practice. Gwaine and Ron of course slept through the whole thing, Arthur, for once, did not.

"Wood!" he called out as the boy was leaving the room probably to fetch the rest of his team.

"Sorry Pendragon, it was urgent" he said expecting Arthur to be annoyed at being woken up so early on a Saturday.

"That's not what I was going to say actually" he said sliding out of his bed while Harry was still throwing on his Quidditch robes "did you say you were going to practice?"

"Yeah, why?" he asked, now interested.

"You didn't even have any tryouts" Arthur explained "I was hoping to go out for the team now that I'm a second year".

Wood nodded in understanding "Right, I'm really sorry, but I know how well my team plays and I wasn't looking for anyone else. We'll be needing a knew keeper in two years, I'm sure if you practice, the new captain will judge you fairly, hurry up there Harry" he said and walked out the door before Arthur could tell him how unfair that was.

Harry sent Arthur an apologetic glance, but continued after Wood out of the dormitory. Arthur was fuming, and Merlin was sure he was about to punch something, or throw something, likely at him.

"Are you going to practice?" he asked hesitantly.

"What good would that do when they aren't even letting anyone else on the bloody team?" he asked angrily.

"Princess, what's got your knickers in a twist this early in the morning?" Gwaine asked sleepily pulling the hangings around his bed back.

"Wood, he's not even having any tryouts for the team, he's already practicing with the others today" Arthur answered, hand itching as though searching for something to throw.

"What!?" Gwaine asked furiously jumping out of bed.

"Like I said, he came in here and drug Harry out of bed for practice, the season hasn't even started yet!" Arthur said back. Ron continued to snore and Merlin was deeply impressed.

"He can't do that, I didn't get a chance to try out. He can't do that! Where is he, I'm trying out, and I'm getting on that team…" Gwaine muttered furiously looking for his clothes to get ready.

"He won't take you, he's made that clear" Merlin said trying to calm down both Gwaine and Arthur, the latter of who was now also furiously getting ready.

Arthur and Gwaine stopped for a moment, giving each other a quick look then turning back to Merlin, Arthur saying "you're right Merlin, he wouldn't, so we'll go to McGonagall, she'll sort this out so that we have a fair chance"

"That's not what I meant!" Merlin argued.

"Shut up and get ready Merlin, you're coming to, even if we have to drag you there in your night clothes" Arthur said throwing on his shoes.

"Why do you need me?" he asked, still standing where he was.

"As another witness, I was still asleep remember, are you getting ready or not?" Gwaine asked.

"No, I don't want to do this" he said determinedly.

"Whatever" Gwaine shrugged, and Arthur came to stand beside him. The two boys walked right up to Merlin and each took one arm and dragged him along between them, his feet dragging on the floor.

"Stop it. Let me go! I'll get ready, just stop dragging me!" Merlin squirmed in their hold, but they did not let go, walking down the dormitory steps with Merlin between them, Ron still snoring.

"What do the three of you want this early in the morning, and Mr. Pendragon, is there a reason you're still in your nightclothes?" Professor McGonagall asked looking down at a very disgruntled Merlin who was no longer being held by Gwaine and Arthur, but was still between them.

"That's because he wouldn't get ready when we told him to ma'am, sorry about that, but we needed to talk to you" Gwaine explained.

McGonagall's eyebrows rose, "What exactly is so important that you had to drag your friend down here?"

"The Quidditch team," Arthur started but was interrupted.

"Whatever you have to say about the Quidditch team should be taken to the captain, he is meant to handle his own players" McGonagall said.

"But it's about the captain Professor" Arthur said.

"Wood, what could you have to complain about Wood?" she asked once again intrigued.

"He's already practicing with the Quidditch team" Arthur complained.

McGonagall, failing to see the problem, said "yes, I authorized his use of the Quidditch pitch for today".

"No, he's already got his team, without tryouts!" Arthur exclaimed, Gwaine nodding angrily behind him.

"As far as I am aware, everyone on the team has tried out before Wood and has had his good judgment before being added".

"Not this year, he has not had an open tryout this year, to see if there is anyone better than who he already has on his team, he has not given anyone else in Gryffindor a chance to be on the team" Arthur explained fully.

"I see, you wanted a chance to tryout. Wood, as captain, has the authority to decide who is on the team, and if he wants to hold open tryouts. He has done nothing that was not in his power to do, I am sorry boys, but that is the way it is" she said.

"That's hardly fair, we should have the right to try out for the sport before we are denied a position" argued Arthur.

"I understand you are upset, but that is how Hogwarts Quidditch works, I cannot help you any further with the Gryffindor team, nor can anyone else, but if you wish to complain about the system, you may take it up with Professor Dumbledore".

"Fine, I'd like to do that, where is he?" Arthur said immediately.

McGonagall looked slightly amused "I see you are very determined. Professor Dumbledore is likely in his office during this time of the day".

"Where is his office?" Arthur asked.

"It would be more polite if you scheduled an appointment instead of barging in" McGonagall's lips pursed.

"Then how do I go about doing that?" Arthur asked exasperated.

"You would bring the request to me" McGonagall answered "and I happen to know he's not in any meetings at the moment, so I will take you to see him. Follow me" she said and led them out of her office and down the hallways of Hogwarts.

"First McGonagall, now Dumbledore, is there any of the teachers that don't have to see me in my nightclothes today?" Merlin mumbled from behind Arthur and Gwaine who had stopped keeping an eye on him to make sure he did not run away. Merlin had actually become interested in how this complaint would turn out and had no desire to run any more.

She brought them up to a large gargoyle sitting in an alcove and motioned for them to stand on the spiral staircase circling around the creature up to its middle. They did as instructed and she spoke "Lemon drop".

The stair case shuddered and started to circle, going up into the ceiling stopping across a small hallway from a wooden door. They each looked at each other before Arthur walked forward and knocked on the door.

"Enter" Dumbledore's voice said from behind the door.

**I hope you enjoyed it, I know it was a little cliff hanger, but there you go. Keep reviewing and I will keep writing, well, I would keep writing anyway, but you just don't understand how happy reviews make me, they make me write faster. Next chapter, Arthur fights to get his own Quidditch team, and I'm sure most of you can guess who the other players are going to be. **


	9. Chapter 9

Arthur opened the door to Professor Dumbledore's office and walked in, Merlin coming just behind him, conscious of the fact that he was still in his pajamas.

"Help yourselves to a seat" he said from where he was sitting behind a desk, and with a wave of his wand, three soft chairs appeared before the desk. They all took their seats, not sure how to begin.

Dumbledore looked at the three boys over the top of his half mooned spectacles, and though he did not stare openly, Merlin knew he had seen the way he had dressed. "Am I right in assuming you did not come up here to just sit here?"

Arthur cleared his throat, slightly embarrassed, "Yes Professor, we actually came because we wanted a chance to join a Quidditch team".

"Did you not tryout for your own house team?" he asked.

"We never got the chance sir, it had already been decided that those that played the year before would play this year, there were no tryouts" Gwaine explained.

"Do you expect me to let you try out for one of the other house teams?" he asked curiously.

"Of course not" Merlin intervened "I think even if they were allowed to try out, there would be no way they could get onto their teams, besides, it would be like betraying our own house".

Dumbledore nodded "my thoughts exactly, so what do you propose I do?"

"Sir, there is only one sport played at this school, and out of the many students that attend, only seven people from each house is allowed to play. That leaves many other students feeling as though they don't qualify to play sports here. My suggestion is to let us from our own team, outside of the houses, it would be open to anyone from any house to join, as long as they are in second year or above" Arthur said sitting up straighter in his chair.

Dumbledore's eyes seemed to twinkle in amusement and perhaps admiration "Mr. Pendragon, you are the first student in my time as headmaster, and even as a teacher here, to actually suggest having a team that is not linked to the house the students are in. I think that is a wonderful idea, it will likely help relations between houses. There are some conditions of course…"

"Of course Professor, whatever it is" Arthur said confidently.

"You will need one of the Professors to sponsor your team, they will have to help plan your matches and practices. I ask that you do not ask any of the teachers that have their own teams to plan for. Next, when you win a match, and with your determination, I have no doubt that you will, the points you win will be split evenly amongst your players to go to their houses".

"That sounds fair Professor" Arthur nodded grateful, and was about to get up when Dumbledore stopped him.

"My last request is that you are the team captain, Mr. Pendragon" Dumbledore was smiling now and Arthur looked ready to laugh in joy, instead, he simply nodded and began to leave the room, "Oh, and Merlin, perhaps it would be best if you changed before the three of you start scouting for other team members".

Merlin's face was a furious red as he left the headmasters office and followed his brother and friend back down to the rest of the castle.

Gwaine and Arthur finally let Merlin go back to their dormitory and change into his regular clothes. Ron had finally gotten out of bed and left, though Merlin really was not paying much attention, he was more interested in who Arthur was going to ask to be on his team.

"I think we need to get one of the Professors to sponsor us before we start looking for the team" Arthur suggested.

"Who were you thinking of asking?" Gwaine asked taking a bite of the apple he had found while Merlin had been changing.

"I don't know, I want someone who will definitely say yes though".

"Well, I know one person who wouldn't say no if we asked him the right way" Gwaine said with a mischievous smile, glancing at Merlin.

Catching on, Merlin nearly ran back up to the dormitory to hide, but Arthur had caught his arm "I am not going to that man for anything, it's bad enough I have class with him!".

"C'mon Merlin, he's not that bad, just a bit crazy. Let him think it'll help his image and he's sure to come running" Arthur said simply.

"Not him, get someone else, anyone else, let's ask Professor Binns" Merlin pleaded.

"Merlin, he's a ghost, he's not going to say yes, it has to be Lockhart" Gwaine said, and once again, he found his friends flanking him and dragging him between them, this time though he was struggling even harder.

"Ah, boys, what can I do for you, need some help on your homework, I'm sure I could give you a few pointers, Merlin, how's Harry?" Lockhart greeted them in his normal, and crazy, way.

"Fine, I suppose, he's out practicing at the moment" Merlin said disinterestedly.

"Ah, Quidditch, fine sport, I played a bit when I was younger, could have gone on of course, but I wanted to see the world on my own, playing for one of those teams would have taken too much of my time" he nodded as though he was having a fond memory.

"Actually Professor, we came to talk to you about Quidditch, isn't that right Merlin" Arthur said pushing Merlin a little further toward Lockhart.

Merlin sent a quick glare over his shoulder but spoke anyway "Yeah, that's right, we knew you had to be good at Quidditch, as good as you are at everything else-"

"Very wise, well, what is it you wanted to ask me?"

"Professor Dumbledore has given us permission to form our own Quidditch team, allowing a few conditions, one being we had to have a teacher sponsor us" Arthur explained "Merlin here, he looks up to you so much you know, suggested we ask you".

Gwaine's arm around Merlin's shoulder was the only thing keeping the boy from tackling Arthur, though it did not stop the death glare he was sending his way. Arthur of course ignored it and continued to try and convince Lockhart.

"It'll be the first ever Quidditch team at Hogwarts that hasn't been tied to its house, we'll have players from any house".

"The first you say… hmm, that's going to be a hard task, a good thing you came to me, I know what it takes to get through a hard task, just read any of my books, which you have of course. Well, it sounds like a wonderful idea boys, and of course you three will be on the team?"

Gwaine and Arthur both looked at Merlin who rolled his eyes "I'm not really good on a broom, I just wanted to support my friends"

"Ah, very good, everyone needs good friends" Lockhart nodded "I hope your supporting them won't put a strain on your and Harry's relationship though".

"I've already asked him, he's okay with it" Merlin lied quickly, not wanting to get into that conversation with Lockhart.

"Good, then the next thing you'll be needing to do is to find a team yes?"

"Yeah, we were going to hold tryouts tomorrow evening" Arthur explained, "if you could schedule the quidditch pitch for up Professor"

"I'd be delighted to" he beamed at them "don't you worry about a thing, I'm sure there'll be plenty of students that'll want to try out for your team".

There were only two, and they were Gwen and Morgana. Both of them could make fine chasers, but even with them, Gwaine, Arthur and Merlin, who was not fit for any of the positions.

"Hmm, well, this is a bit of sad turn out, they must not have heard that I was the teacher in charge of this team" Lockhart mused "well, you'll just have to go and recruit some members then, tell them I'm in charge, and their sure to come" he walked off, heading back toward the castle.

"I told you that you didn't want him as our supervisor" Merlin said from where he was sitting on the bleachers.

"Shut up Merlin" Arthur said with less enthusiasm than before.

"HEY!" someone shouted as they ran down the field between the Quidditch pitch and the castle. Looking up, Merlin saw Lancelot and Leon coming into the stadium.

"Sorry we're late, we just saw Lockhart leaving, and we decided to come down, have you got your team already?" Lance asked.

"No, we still have plenty of spaces" Gwaine said easily coming down from where he had been hovering on his broom.

"Great, you want to see what we can do?" Leon asked, his broom slung over his shoulder.

"At the moment, it wouldn't matter if you were the worse than Merlin over there, if you can fly, you can have a spot" Arthur sighed.

"Hold on!" another voice cried as two more people walked in, brooms slung on their shoulders.

"Elyan?" Gwen asked surprised as her twin brother walked in with Lancelot's friend Percy.

"Hey Gwen, did you make the team?" he asked looking at her broom.

"Well, I had, until the two of you came in" she said, there were now just enough people that one of them could not be on the team.

"I guess we really will have to try out" Gwaine said happily to Arthur.

"Looks that way" he said with his own smile.

.

.

.

**The reason no one came is because everyone is starting to hate Lockhart, and most of the older students do not want to follow a second year in their Quidditch team. As always, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll let you know who made what position in the next one. Please keep reviewing, your reviews make my day.**


	10. Chapter 10

Practice went on for two and a half hours the night before, but finally Arthur decided on who was on the team and what positions they would play.

Arthur himself was made keeper while Lance, Leon, and Morgana were made chasers. Gwaine and Percival were placed as the beaters, and Elyan, the fastest flyer, was made seeker. Gwen was given a spot as the alternate if anything happened to any of the other players. Merlin was made the mostly-official equipment manager when Arthur made him carry his things and put them up.

When they made it back to their dormitory, the only thing they had not decided on was their team name.

At diner, Arthur, Gwaine and Merlin were all furious to learn that Malfoy had called Hermione a mudblood- even angrier once Ron had explained to them what that meant. Gwaine was ready to walk over to the Slytherin table and curse him then and there, but Hermione would never allow it.

Ginny also sat with them, between Merlin and Harry, though she got upset when she heard about Malfoy incident, Merlin felt like she was not really paying attention. Harry and Ron then had to serve their detention for flying into the whomping willow, Harry helping Lockhart with his fan-mail and Ron cleaning the trophies with Filch.

The next day, Arthur called another practice, being the newest team with only second years, they got the Quidditch pitch for that morning. "All right, we're going to be-"

"How's it goin' Merlin?" Hagrid asked walking up to where the boy was watching Arthur give out orders for practice.

"It's going well, no sign of Lockhart, can't ask for much more than that" he replied.

"Mm, that man… well, he's no' here" Hagrid agreed.

"What are you doing here Hagrid?" Merlin asked curiously.

"Saw yeh flyin' around from me hut, though' I'd stop by an' see how yeh're comin'" he said watching the team fly around, Percy and Gwaine hitting a bludger back and forth, Morgana, Leon, and Lancelot shooting the quaffle at Arthur who had not failed to block it yet. "Pretty good so far"

"Yeah, they might actually have a chance" Merlin said looking up at them.

"Ay, bu' they'll have to get past Gryffindor an' Harry's a fine seeker" Hagrid said.

"Yeah, and I want to root for him too, so whoever wins, it'll be a good game I'm sure" Merlin replied cheerfully.

"Tha' it will" Hagrid laughed as Elyan dived after the practice snitch and pulled out of a dive just in time, golden ball in hand.

They watched silently for a few minutes before an idea hit Merlin "Hagrid, I didn't really think about it until now, but, now that there's nothing important to guard in the school, what happened to Fluffy, he's not still cooped up in that corridor is he?"

"Ah, well, no, he's got plenty of space to run… I'm sure…." Hagrid said evasively.

Merlin turned to face the gamekeeper "What are you saying Hagrid?"

"Well, he might'a broke his leash when I tied him up ou' in the fores'" he said sheepishly.

"So he's out running around in that forest?" Merlin asked incredulously.

"Probably somewhere in there, yeah" he nodded.

"Well, that's a comforting thought" Merlin muttered loud enough for Hagrid to hear him.

"He's really no' that bad, jus' a bit grumpy fer having been locked up in tha' small corridor" Merlin raised one of his eyebrows, Gaius having rubbed off on him "well, small fer him" Hagrid shrugged "go' a bit stir crazy in there, can't blame 'em fer wantin' ter stretch his legs a bit. I would like to see 'em again though, I kinda miss the big fella"

"He did have a certain charm, once you got past the three snarling heads" Merlin said, mostly to cheer Hagrid up.

"Yeah, he did didn' he" he sighed.

"Have you tried calling him back?" Merlin asked as Gwaine swished past him.

"Well, I tried callin' after 'em when he firs' ran, bu' I didn' think he'd still be around after tha', so no" Hagird explained.

Merlin nodded thoughtfully and was quiet for the rest of practice when Arthur threw his broom at him telling him to store it in the broom shed.

Later that evening, after diner, when Arthur and Gwaine were busy doing the homework Merlin would not let them copy, he decided to go for a walk around the grounds, down near Hargird's hut. The sun was just setting into the top of the trees of the forest, and it cast a warm glow that had the shadows reaching across the grounds.

His feet led him down to the edge of the forest, the leaves blowing a cool breeze across his face. He looked over his shoulder at the castle, right at the Gryffindor tower where Arthur was still with Gwaine.

He had finally seemed to have gotten over Merlin's moving in with Gaius, he was finally talking with him again, and he was still keeping a close eye on him. Merlin knew the boy would be mad when he could not find him in the dormitory, if he knew what Merlin was currently thinking, he had no idea what the boy would do.

Gwaine would probably think it was a good idea, but would no doubt tell him it was only bad when he decided to do it on his own. He knew they were worried for his safety, he was apparently helpless, and he wanted to prove to himself if not them, that he could handle himself.

Taking a deep breath, he walked into the trees. With the sun filtering through the leaves, it was far less scary than the last time Merlin had been in the forest, which was not a good thing to think about when he was walking through it by himself.

He continued following one of the paths that led through the forest, trying to ignore the many noises coming from the trees and trying not to compare them to the sound of a cloak trailing over fallen leaves.

Patches of sunlight danced on the forest floor and on the trunks of the trees in a magical way. Merlin noticed the trees were thinning even though he had been walking into the forest, and a few feet off the trail, he saw a dark haired girl holding he hand out in front of her, her palm pointing up.

"Freya!" he called out and she spun around quickly dropping her hands down to her sides.

"Merlin, what are you doing here?" she asked surprised.

"Taking a walk, what about you?" he asked back.

"Oh… uh, the same" she shrugged walking back to trail.

"What were you doing off the trail?" he asked remembering Hagrid's warning about staying on the trail.

"Well… I-I, I just wanted to come out into the woods. My gran would always take me for walks in the woods, show me the different creatures and ways to survive. It reminds me of home"

"It's dangerous out here though" Merlin said "they're all sorts of things running around this forest, we should go back up to the castle".

"I'm pretty sure we're safe, the forest is humming with life, if there was anything foul out there, and everything but it would be silent"

"I don't know…" Merlin really wanted to go back to the castle now that Freya was out here with him, he hated the idea of putting her in danger.

"C'mon, there's a clearing up here I want to show you, it's my favorite part of the forest to come to, and I've been too afraid to ask anyone to come out here with me" she said pulling on his arm to get him to follow her.

She led him into a large circular clearing where the sun was able to melt into making the whole place glow. In the middle, a large boulder stuck out of the ground and she went over and sat on it, patting a space next to her for Merlin. He cautiously walked over and sat next to her.

They continued to talk telling each other about their lives, Freya about her many camping trips with her grandmother and Merlin about his new life with Gaius.

"That's what I meant by everything becoming silent" she said suddenly after they had stopped laughing about a joke Merlin had just made. Like she said, the forest seemed to have suddenly gone quiet except for the wind in the leaves, and if Merlin was right, a heavy panting from behind them.

"Slowly" whispered Freya as he started to turn around, and slowly they both shifted their weight to look behind them. What he found made Merlin want to scream, though he wisely chose not to as large nose was stuck in his face, another in Freya's.

"Hey Fluffy" Merlin said in a falsely cheerful voice, trying not to alert the three headed dog. Fluffy let out a loud bark that did not sound as menacing as it had when the dog had been in that corridor.

"Did you just call that dog Fluffy?" Freya asked stepping off the rock so she could stand facing the dog, Merlin standing with her. Fluffy kept four of his eyes trained on them, the other two constantly roving the forest.

"Well, that's his name, he's Hagrid's dog" Merlin explained, Fluffy cocking one of his heads and pricking his ears.

"That makes complete sense now" Freya said then moved forward a step holding out her hand, Merlin tried to grab her arm, but failed "here Fluffy, come here boy"

A canine smile fell across the giant dog's face and he leaned in to her touch and she rubbed his chin along his jaw line, a contented sigh escaping his lips. "C'mon Merlin, he's not so bad"

Hesitantly, he reached out his own hand, and another one of the heads met it putting its ear low enough to be scratched, the third head letting out an obviously happy bark. "Good boy" Merlin cooed, rubbing the dog like it was normal and did not have three heads that were bigger than him.

They had no idea how long they stayed there, throwing sticks for Fluffy to chase, and to small for him to bring back. At one point, Merlin enchanted one to keep flying for the dog to chase which he did happily. Finally the sun started going down, and both kids gave Fluffy a good bye rub, and ran back along the trail toward the castle. By some stroke of luck, neither were caught coming out or going back to their dorms, even Arthur had assumed Merlin was up in the dormitory the whole time, and Merlin did nothing to correct him.

**So, there was a little Merlin x Freya fluff and I had always wondered what happened to Fluffy and that is what I assumed happened, of course Merlin would find him and there was no doubt he would befriend him. **


	11. Chapter 11

October soon came, along with it colder weather and plenty of rain. Madam Pompfrey, the nurse, was kept busy with the sudden onslaught of colds plaguing the castle. Students and staff alike were constantly coming to take her Pepperup Potion which worked instantly but had the drinker steaming at the ears for hours come.

Ginny, who had been looking pale, was bullied into taking the potion by her older brother Percy. Merlin was forced to take it by Gwaine and Arthur as soon as he started sneezing. The next few hours had been embarrassing especially since Arthur had made him come to their Quidditch Practice.

Merlin and Freya made another trip to see Fluffy, sneaking out when Arthur was busy with a new play he wanted the team to try out. Freya had come up to the Quidditch pitch and had snuck away with him when Arthur seemed completely distracted.

They made it back to the same clearing with the large boulder in the center and Freya put her fingers up to her lips and let out a loud whistle that had a few birds taking off from their perches. The two sat on the boulder and talked as they waited for the large dog.

The dog came flying into the clearing leaving an obvious trail as he broke through any tree branches or saplings that stood in his way. Seeing who it was that had called for him, all three of Fluffy's faces broke into a canine grin, tongue lolling out, and he rolled onto his back leaving his stomach exposed.

Merlin and Freya laughed at the dog's antics quickly complying with his request to rub his stomach. They continued to play with the large, three headed dog, scratching his ears and throwing things for him to catch, or levitating them in Merlin's case, for a few hours before Freya suggested they go back to the castle.

Patting the dog good-bye, the two students walked back towards the castle, the forest seeming less scary than it ever had as Fluffy walked behind them.

"Do you think we should tell Hagrid about Fluffy, he still thinks he's run away?" Freya asked looking back into the trees as they had made it back onto the grounds of Hogwarts, Fluffy staying back.

"Fluffy is Hagrid's dog" Merlin said.

"You're right, we should tell him" Freya decided, then looked slightly sheepish "maybe you should do it, you're closer to him"

"Okay" Merlin agreed, it was a little awkward that they had went out into the forbidden forest to play with a potentially dangerous animal twice now and had not yet told the owner of said animal that it was still around.

"Thanks Merlin" she said, her cheeks turning slightly pink as she turned to leave. Something stopped her, and she quickly turned back to Merlin and, standing on her toes, quickly pecked him on the cheek with her lips before running off towards the castle leaving a stunned Merlin to stand there staring after her.

* * *

"Well…." Gwaine said as Merlin climbed through the portrait hole.

"Well what?" Merlin asked stepping back from his friend who had an eager smile on his face.

"Well what happened with you and that first year you ditched practice for?" Arthur asked coming up from the other side.

"Nothing, and I can't ditch practice Arthur, I'm not on the team" Merlin said defensively.

"You're the equipment manager" Arthur argued.

"You mean I carry your things for you" Merlin said back and Arthur shrugged acceptingly.

"So, what happened with the two of you?" Gwaine asked not to be deterred.

"We were just hanging out and talking, she wanted to go sit by some trees" he said evasively trying to explain why they did not just hang out at the Quidditch stands.

"Right… well it's not like you would get up to something anyway, right Merlin?" Gwaine asked while walking over to one of the red and gold couches sat throughout the common room. Merlin did not answer as he and Arthur walked over to sit with Gwaine on the couch, the conversation quickly turned to what Arthur and Gwaine had not done for homework and asking Merlin if they could possibly look at his.

* * *

Halloween came quickly, though the time between was mostly spent on the Quidditch Pitch or in class, and sadly none of it was spent with Freya and Fluffy, and Merlin was excited about the feast, last year's having been interrupted by the troll Quirrell had let in.

Merlin, Gwaine, and Arthur walked down to the Great Hall, Harry, Ron, and Hermione walking the other way toward the dungeons. Harry had explained earlier to the three that he had promised to go to Sir Nicholas's death day party.

The Great Hall was full of Hagrid sized jack-o-lanterns, grown by Hagird, where Peeves kept hiding and jumping out to scare students from. Live bats were flying around the ceiling which was lit up with the stars and a crescent moon.

Candelabras and spider webs lined the walls, small silver wind chimes sung hauntingly around the room in a breeze that sent chills up Merlin's spine. Twelve very convincing skeletons stood evenly spaced out behind the teachers table, and if the rumors were anything to go by, it was likely they would be dancing before the night was over.

The usual warm wooded tables that usually adorned the Great Hall were replaced, or at least enchanted to look as though they were a darker shade than usual. The teachers had gone all out this year, and Merlin was impressed, and by the looks on his friend's faces, so were Arthur and Gwaine.

The boys quickly took their seats, Merlin ending up between Gwaine and Ginny. Arthur sat next to Gwaine. The rest of the student body, other than Harry and the others, filed into the Great Hall and sat at their own tables, waiting eagerly for the food to appear on their plates.

Dumbledore stood from his seat to address the students who all quieted on that que "Happy Holidays to all of you. I won't bore you with a long speech, instead, let's eat!"

Food appeared on the plates down the table ready for the students to pile onto their own plates. Gwaine and Arthur wasted no time piling on everything they could reach Merlin quickly following suite.

Halfway through his meal, he noticed Ginny beside him looking pale and having put nothing on her plate. "Ginny, you okay?"

"Hmm?" she looked up at Merlin as though she had just come out of a deep day dream. "Oh, I'm not really feeling… that good" she shook her head then stood up "I think I'm just going to go back to the common room".

"You're sure?" Merlin asked worried about her "I can co-"

"Merlin, tell Arthur that being a beater is way more difficult than being keeper" Gwaine said aggressively, Merlin rolled his eyes and turned back to Ginny but she was already gone.

He looked around the Great Hall, but she had already left the room, though he was sure that was impossible to do in the very small amount of time he had looked away, but he turned his attention back to the feast.

"Merlin-_Merlin!_" Arthur said reaching around Gwaine to shove Merlin's shoulder.

"What?" Merlin asked looking up at the worried faces of his friends.

"You haven't said anything in a whole ten minutes and we've been insulting you the whole time and you haven't given any come backs" Arthur explained.

"And you've just been moving your food around on your plate, you aren't eating" Gwaine noticed.

"I'm, I don't know, I just don't feel so good all of a sudden" he shrugged.

"Do you want to go back?" Arthur asked.

"No, I don't want to ruin your evening" Merlin said.

"It's pretty much over anyways, deserts been up for those ten minutes you've been out of it" Gwaine said.

Merlin looked around at the plates in surprise that they were now full of cakes and puddings. Looking around at the seats, he noticed that they were slowly emptying.

Looking over at the Slytherin table he saw Morgana and Morgause both moving toward the door, both looked pale and tired.

"Come on" Arthur said pulling Merlin up by his elbow. Merlin let him pull him up, he kept himself from falling over by determination alone. Gwaine noticed as he put his own hand under Merlin's elbow to keep him from falling after Arthur had taken his away.

"Sure we shouldn't be taking him to the hospital wing?" Gwaine directed the question to Arthur who looked like he was seriously considering it.

"No, I'm fine" he refused jerking his arm away from Gwaine and concentrated on not swaying where he stood "I just need to go to sleep is all, I'll be fine in the morning".

Arthur looked mutinous but Merlin started following the rest of the Gryffindor crowd to the door, Arthur and Gwaine followed closely in case he started to fall over.

Most of the students were laughing and talking about their own things, Merlin was not paying attention to any of it as he tried to stay on his feet. The feeling was getting worse the farther they walked, it was so bad that Merlin walked right into the back of one of his house mates who had stopped in front of him.

"Sorry" Merlin muttered as Gwaine steadied him from behind.

"What's going on?" Arthur asked.

Seamus Finnagan turned around "Mrs. Norris" he said pointing to where the hated cat of Argus Filch the caretaker was hanging upside down over a pool of water, not moving. Above the small creature was writing in what could only be blood "THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR BEWARE."

Standing just at the edge of the pool of water was none other than Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger.

Harry whipped his head around from where the students were standing as though he were looking for someone who had just said something even though everyone was too stunned to speak. Merlin felt his strength leave him and he fell to his knees.

"Enemies of the heir, beware! You'll be next mudbloods" he heard the voice of Draco Malfoy and looked up through bleary eyes to see the boy standing pompously in front of the rest of his house. Morgana was leaning her whole weight against Crabbe while Morgause was leaning most of hers against the corridor wall.

"What's going on here, why're you all- MY CAT!" Argus Filch screamed as he pushed past students to get to Mrs. Norris. He stroked her fur lovingly, fearfully, and regretfully before spotting Harry.

"_You!_ You killed my cat. You killed her- I kill you!" he screeched.

"Mr. Filch, please stop this" said Dumbledore calmly coming from another corridor with the other teachers behind him. He walked up and took Mrs. Norris down from where she was hanging, holding her with a gentle care "If you'll follow me, you too Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Mrs. Granger"

The teachers, the caretaker, and the three students walked away Lockhart saying they could use his office to sort the mess out, leaving the rest of the school to make their way back to their dorms. By the time Merlin had made it to his room he was feeling right again like nothing had ever been wrong with him.


	12. Chapter 12

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were let off the hook when Professor Dumbledore announced that Mrs. Norris's petrification could not have been done by any of the students as it would take powerful dark magic to accomplish such an enchantment.

Over the next few weeks, the attack was the only thing anyone could talk about, some of the whispers were still saying it was Harry. Some of the more well-known muggleborns in the school were even going out of their way to avoid him.

Ginny seemed to be really upset by Mrs. Norris's petrification, she would get emotional if anyone even mentioned the work cat. Ron attempted to make her feel better about it but Merlin was fairly certain he had only made it worse.

Hermione could be found spending much of her time in the library, not entirely unusual, but it was more than could be explained with just homework.

Arthur was keeping an even closer eye on Merlin, much to the boy's annoyance seeing as his brother hardly let him out of his sight before. Gwaine was even starting to include himself into what he had called the 'Merlin watch'.

Lockhart had started to make regular visits to their Quidditch practices, taking Arthur aside almost every five minutes saying he should think about using some technique the man said he had invented. Arthur nodded along, even had his team run the play for the sake of getting Lockhart to stop going on about it.

At the end of every practice however, Lockhart continued to try and convince Arthur to call his team the "Gilderoy Bludgers" or the "Lockhart flyers" or some other ridiculous name that put him in the spotlight. He also began stressing the need for them to win as he realized his name would not get any glory if the team made a fool of itself in its first match.

The students were too distracted with the mystery of the chamber to pay much attention in class which was starting to wear on the teacher's nerves. McGonagall had threatened her class with a yard long essay on why it is important to pay attention when performing transfiguration spells if they did not stop day dreaming and start taking notes. Professor Snape simply said they could all be eaten by the monster for all he cared but they had more of a chance being poisoned by him.

Professor Binn's class had even less people paying attention in it than ususal, a ghost giving the same dull lectures he had given when he was alive is not the best way to keep a kid's attention. That day though, something interesting did happen, one of the students raised their hand.

Hermione's hands waved in the air until Professor Binns finally looked up from his never ending lecture "Miss- er-"

"Granger, Professor. I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the Chamber of Secrets" she said confidently and clearly.

Everyone's head snapped up and they all started paying attention "My subject is History of Magic. I deal with _facts_, Miss Granger, not myths and legends" he said then began again with his lecture "In September of that year, a subcommittee of Sardinian sorcerers-"

He stopped again as Hermione's hand went back up into the air. In a dry voice he asked "Miss Grant?"

"Please sir, don't legends always have basis in fact?"

Professor Binns looked surprised "Well, yes, one could argue that, I suppose. However, the legend of which you speak is such a very _sensational, _even _ludicrous_ tale-"

Everyone was hanging onto his every word, something that had likely never happened once before in his overly long career.

"Oh, very well, let me see… the Chamber of Secrets…

"You all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago- the precise date is uncertain- by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age. The four school houses are named after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They built this castle together, far from prying Muggle eyes, for it was an age when magic was feared by common people, and witches and wizards suffered much persecution."

"For a few years, the founders worked in harmony together, seeking out youngsters who showed signs of magic and bringing them to the castle to be educated. But then disagreements sprang up between them. A rift began to grow between Slytherin and the others, Slytherin wished to be more _selective_ about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families. He disliked taking students of Muggle parentage, believing them to be untrustworthy. After a while, there was a serious argument on the subject between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Slytherin left the school.

"Reliable historical sources tell us this much, but these honest facts have been obscured by the fanciful legend of the Chamber of Secrets. The story goes that Slytherin had built a hidden chamber in the castle, of which the other founders knew nothing.

"Slytherin, according to the legend, sealed the Chamber of Secrets so that none would be able to open it until his own true heir arrived at the school. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic.

"The whole thing is arrant nonsense, of course, naturally the school has been searched for evidence of such a chamber, many times, by the most learned witches and wizards. It does not exist, A tale told to frighten the gullible".

Hermione's hand went back into the air.

"Sir- what exactly do you mean by the 'horror within' the Chamber?"

"That is believed to be some sort of monster, which the Heir of Slytherin alone can control" Professor Binns explained. At the classes nervous exchange of nervous he continued "I tell you, this thing does not exist. There is no Chamber and there is no Monster".

The students began to give out reasons of why such wonderful wizards had never been able to find it, Professor Binns continued to give reasons why they did not make sense until he lost his composure and told the students that he would have no more talk about the Chamber in his class.

Merlin, Arthur and Gwaine had gone outside to sit under one of the large oak trees, the wind was blowing a chilled air but they ignored it.

"It looks like those three are starting to dig into things again" Gwaine said conversationally as he took a bite out of a green apple which Merlin had no idea how he had gotten.

"Hermione just asked a question we were all wondering about" Merlin defended, he had been glad she had asked, it kept him from doing it.

"They've been spending a lot of time in the library again" Gwaine pointed out.

"And that says they're trying to go and try and find the Chamber of Secrets" Merlin said sarcastically.

"You know how they are" Arthur said looking at Merlin pointedly "and we know how you are. Don't get mixed up in this Merlin".

"Like Professor Binns said, there's nothing to get caught up in" Merlin said back.

Arthur looked at him searchingly for a second before sitting back against the tree apparently having accepted what Merlin had said for now. Merlin turned around so Gwaine and Arthur could not see the guilt he was sure was showing on his face from having gone out to see Fluffy again earlier that week.

"Hey guys" Morgana waved her hand as she walked down to where they were sitting. Gwen was walking with her and Morgana looked uncomfortable.

"Gwen just tell you what Binns said about the Chamber?" Gwaine guessed.

Morgana nodded "Arthur, I want you to be careful, got it?"

She bent down so that she was face to face with him so close he had to pull back until his head was touching the tree. "You're a muggleborn and if what everyone is saying is true, you're the main target of this monster".

Merlin sniggered as Arthur nodded under Morgana's fierce, and very protective, gaze. He stopped abruptly when she turned it on him "And don't you go getting yourself in trouble by sticking your nose in places in doesn't belong"

Gwaine laughed as Merlin imitated Arthur by backing up and nodding. He stopped just as quickly as Merlin when she turned to him as well.

"And you, don't think of letting them get into any crazy dangerous situations, and don't you lead them into any either, got it?" Gwaine followed suite by backing up and nodding his head along with the others. Gwen looked down at them seriously.

"Do be careful you three" she said.

"It'll be alright Guinevere, just like Binns said, if Dumbledore couldn't find the Chamber, then it's not likely to exist" Gwen smiled at Arthur's attempt to cheer her up before walking back up to the castle with Morgana at her side.

"Even if there is a real beast in the Chamber, we can just sick you sister on it" Gwaine commented as he watched her walk away, Arthur cuffed him on the back of his head.

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** Had to put in some protective Morgana at the end, she might be in Slytherin but she does have a muggle born brother. **


	13. Chapter 13

Saturday morning was the first Quidditch match of the season, and Lockhart had somehow gotten their team to be the first to play, and it was against Gryffindor. Professor Lockhart was making sure everyone knew he was the sponsor for the extra Quidditch team which still had not come up with a name.

They were walking down to the locker rooms, Merlin was carrying Arthur's broom for no obvious reason other than Arthur had not wanted to carry it himself. Gwaine had told him to drop it and if Arthur really wanted it he would come back and get, Arthur had then threatened Gwaine's position on the team and Gwaine just laughed.

Merlin stayed with the team as Arthur went over some last minute strategies. He was just about to leave and join the crowd when Lockhart walked in "Ready boys?"

He slung his arm around Merlin's shoulder "I know you must all be nervous, Gryffindor is a wonderful team but if you just remember the techniques I showed you, you'll win for sure".

"Right, we'll be sure to use your moves Professor" Arthur said smoothly before one of the others, like Morgana or Gwaine, could reply with something else.

"Hey guys, before you go out there, I really need to know the name of your team" Lee Jordan demanded walking into the locker room and coming to stand beside Merlin. Arthur and the rest of the team all looked at each other, Merlin however looked up at Lockhart. The man had a smile on his face that could mean nothing good for the team and Merlin jumped in with his own idea.

"The Knights of the Round Table" he said quickly and everyone gave him a strange look.

"Cool, I'll be sure to announce it, game starts in five guys" Lee Jordan said leaving the locker room just as fast as he had come in. Lockhart whose face had fallen at having lost the opportunity to name his team after himself followed Lee Jordon out of the door leaving Merlin behind.

"Knights of the Round Table?" Arthur asked with a raised eyebrow the others on the team wearing similar looks.

Merlin shrugged "I don't know, you all have those old names from the legends, I thought it was cool".

Morgana shook her head "Morgana was an evil sorceress in those stories Merlin"

"Still around the same time" Merlin shrugged again rubbing the back of his neck "besides, Lockhart was about to name you something ridiculous" they all looked at him pointedly "well, something Lockhart related"

"You're a good man Merlin" Gwaine said appreciatively and Arthur just rolled his eyes.

"The game's about to start" Lance said looking at his watch "you should go get a seat.

Merlin nodded and went out of the door and walked over to the stands "Hey guys"

He sat down with Hermione and Ron who were wearing their Gryffindor scarves.

"Hey Merlin, are Arthur and Gwaine ready?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, they don't seem nervous at all" he responded. Hermione and Ron smiled knowingly, they knew how Arthur could be.

The two teams stepped out of their respective locker rooms with Lee Jordon's voice announcing their arrival "The first game of the season between Gryffindor's team with the same team as last year vs. the new addition to the Hogwarts Quidditch competition. Welcome the Knights of Camelot, a mix of students from each house and full of only second year players".

The crowds cheered as the two teams walked up to each other, Madam Hooch making the two captains, Oliver Wood and Arthur shake hands. She nodded and released the bludgers then the quaffle and finally the golden snitch. With a blow of her whistle the teams took off, Oliver and Arthur racing to protect their respective goals.

Elyan shot up above the other players' eyes already scanning for the golden snitch, Harry doing similarly. Gwaine and Percival were flying around near the chasers, Morgana, Gwen and Leon were circling around the other team looking for a chance to get the quaffle.

Elyan was going in for a second loop around the pitch when a bludger flew right past his head nearly taking his ear off with it. The bludger continued on and went straight for Harry. Merlin saw the boy dive out of the way and the bludger flew on. George Weasley- or that is who Lee Jordon announced it was- flew past and tried to hit the bludger towards the Slytherins.

"George Weasley lands a solid blow on the bludger, but it's coming back towards Harry, that's not a normal bludger" Harry dived away from the oncoming bludger but it just changed course and began coming at him again.

"Harry is fleeing the rouge bludger and Fred Weasley this time lands his own solid blow on the crazy bludger and its now head- nope, it's veering back towards Potter" Lee Jordon said over the loud speaker.

Harry was flying as fast as he could still trying to avoid the bludger and then, of all things, it began to rain. Merlin saw when the Knights of the Round Table noticed the other team's beaters were too busy protecting their seeker to play the game. Gwaine and Percival both stopped where they were before flying off to help keep the bludger away, they may have been on opposite teams but that was unfair advantage that they did not want to take.

Merlin saw Arthur nod his head when he noticed what his beaters were doing and Merlin had to smile, it was nice to know Arthur cared more for the safety of all the players than for winning. He was sure that if Gryffindor had been playing Slytherin they would have laughed at Harry's predicament and used the Gryffindor beaters distraction to their advantage.

"It looks like the knights have come to help out with the rouge bludger" Lee Jordon announced with surprise "the four beaters are surrounding it on all sides and passing it back and forth to keep it from flying toward Harry. That leaves the other bludger to roam freely, watch out players! The score stands at Knights 20, Gryffindor 40"

With both team's beaters busy the game had become fair again, though a little more difficult as they had no one to worry about the other bludger. "Morgana has the ball and she's taking it down the pitch, Angelina comes up on her right, Morgana drops the ball down to Gwen who rushes off towards the goal, she feigns a shot, then passes to Leon who scores, Knights 40, Gryffindor 40"

Merlin and few others cheered, mostly people who either did not want Gryffidor to win or people with friends on the team. Ron and Hermione cheered, but Merlin knew they were rooting for Harry.

"Alicia Spinnet passes the quaffle to Katie Bell who shoots, Arthur Pendragon blocks the ball effortlessly" Lee commented and Merlin and stood and cheered, more people doing the same as the game progressed.

Merlin saw Harry begin to dive and Elyan shot right after him. Harry's hand stretched out in front of him and Elyan dipped down on his broom trying to catch up to Harry's nimbus. Elyan had closed in on Harry, their brooms neck and neck, but Harry's hand had already closed around the snitch which he held for everyone to see. Elyan pulled out of his dive a smile pointed at Harry for his good play when the bludger flew right past Elyan's head and straight into Harry's arm. Merlin could imagine the sickening crunch though he was too far away to actually hear anything.

The force of the bludger was enough to push Harry off of his broom. The dive for the snitch had luckily brought him close enough to the ground that it would only take his breath away.

Elyan landed and ran to Harry's side and Merlin, with Ron and Hermione on his heels ran off of the stands to help in any way that they could.

"Gryffindor wins, but the rouge bludger managed to escape it's guards and caught Harry by surprise, that had to hurt"

"That's enough Lee" Professor McGonagall admonished before jumping up to run down to Harry with the other teachers, Lockhart included. Merlin stood with Arthur and Lancelot as Lockhart leaned over the barely conscious Harry.

Harry lifted his good arm and said quietly "Ah, we've won".

Merlin chuckled at this, and then groaned when Lockhart got out his wand. "_No!_" Harry said trying to back away from the smiling Professor "I'll keep it like this, thanks…"

Merlin saw Colin Creevy, the first year who was fascinated with taking Harry's picture every chance he got trying to get a good shot of Lockhart fixing Harry's arm.

"I don't want a picture of this, Colin" Harry said in a clearly annoyed voice. Lancelot put his hand on the first years shoulder as he tried to get in closer and shook his head at the boys questioning look. The boy backed away sadly holding his camera down.

"Lie back, Harry," Lockhart said in soothing voice that no doubt put Harry even more on edge "It's a simple charm. I've used countless times-"

"Why can't I just go to the hospital wing?" Harry asked clenching his teeth.

"Professor, maybe we should just take him to Madam Pompfrey, I don't think she'd appreciate it if you started showing her up or anything" Merlin said trying to get the man away from Harry.

"He really should Professor" said Wood "Great capture, Harry, really spectacular, your best yet, I'd say-" the Quidditch captain said with a broad smile on his face "Your team did really well Arthur" he added when he spotted Arthur and the others.

"Thanks, that means a lot Wood" Arthur said happily. Merlin could hear Fred and George Weaslely in the background wrestling the rouge bludger back into its box.

"Stand back" warned Lockhart not taking Wood's or Merlin's advice.

"No-don't-"Harry tried to back up again but it looked like he was in too much pain. Lockhart twirled his wand and pointed it at Harry's arm.

Merlin watched as Harry's bent arm went limp. It looked like there was nothing holding it up or even attaching it to Harry's body. He noticed Harry's lack of pain as his eyes went back to normal from their scrunched up position before.

"Ah, yes. Well, that can sometimes happen. But the point is, the bones are no longer broken. That's the thing to bear in mind. So, Harry, just toddle up to the hospital wing- ah, Merlin, why don't you escort him? -and Madam Pompfrey will be able to –er—tidy you up a bit."

* * *

Ron and Hermione rushed to Harry's side and took him to Madam Pompfrey themselves leaving Merlin with the Kinghts and Gryffindor Quidditch teams.

Arthur, Gwaine and Merlin stayed awake to wait for Hermione and Ron to tell them how Harry was doing. Unsurprisingly he was told to stay in the Hospital Wing for the night. Along with Ron and Hermione came the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team who had been kicked out of the Hospital Wing by Madam Pompfrey for disturbing her patient.

"He seemed sad to see us go really" Fred pointed out.

After that the two team captains along with Gwaine and other members of the Gryffindor team stayed up to talk about how the game went, Merlin decided to go to bed.

Merlin woke in the middle of the night with his stomach revolting against him. He was in a cold sweat and he could not stop shivering, his muscles were aching and all he really wanted was to pass out. Arthur must have woken up when Merlin had emptied his stomach over the side of his bed because he was now standing over his brother looking worried.

"We should get him to the hospital wing, Arthur" he heard Gwaine suggest from somewhere. He felt his body being lifted on both sides, one arm slung over Arthur's shoulder, the other over Gwaine's.

His feet would not work, his whole body felt to week to respond to him so he let his friends drag his dead weight down to Madam Pompfrey who would hopefully have a cure and an explanation.

Gwaine pushed the door to the hospital wing open to find a very strange sight. At least four teachers not including Madam Pompfrey were all crowded around the very still figure of a first year.

McGonagall looked up at their entry and quickly turned angry "what are the three of you doing out of bed?"

"Merlin's sick Professor, he really needed to come to the Hospital Wing" Arthur explained.

She looked like she wanted to argue, but instead left it to Madam Pompfrey "lay him over there next to Mr. Potter, try not to wake him"

Arthur nodded and took Merlin over to the bed next to Harry who was looking at them curiously Merlin mumbling a soft "sorry".

"I was already awake, but I didn't want the teachers to know" he whispered making sure the teachers were not paying any attention to them.

"What's going on over there?" Gwaine asked as he settled Merlin down on the cot.

Harry took in a deep breath "Colin was sneaking up here with some grapes apparently, they said he was petrified, then they said that the Chamber of Secrets has been opened again… he was a muggle born".

Gwaine and Merlin both looked worriedly towards Arthur.

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** Thought I would end this chapter on a cheerful note. I hope you are all still enjoying my story, and I have to apologize for my misuse of the word heir in chapter 11, I think I fixed it. Keep reviewing, I like to know what you're thinking and keep reading.**


	14. Chapter 14

Merlin was walking back into the common room having just come back from hanging out with Freya and Fluffy. It had been a few weeks since the petrification incident and rumors were spreading like a wild fire. Most of the students had taken to walking around in groups scared of being attacked by some monster, other students were working a black market protection amulet and talisman trade under the teachers noses.

Freya had wanted to go and see Fluffy again before they left for Christmas break which was coming up soon. "So, are you staying here for Christmas or going home?"

Fluffy was rolling around on his back playing in the fallen leaves and Merlin answered "I'm going to stay with Gaius, it'll be our first Christmas, what about you?"

"I'm going to spend the holidays with my gran, she's going to take me camping like we used to" Freya answered happily.

Her voice turned soft when she asked "what about Arthur and Morgana, are you going to see them over the holiday, or are they staying at the castle?"

"They're going home" he said somberly "Arthur wants me to come back with them, I still haven't told him why I left, or that I left for good".

"He should know who his father really is Merlin, you can't just let him keep thinking the man is a saint, what if he goes after Arthur next, he won't see it coming" she said worriedly.

"Uther loves Arthur too much to do anything like that to him, Morgana too, they're his kids" Merlin smiled ruefully.

Merlin turned to look at Fluffy who was busy licking himself behind the ears, each head taking turns to groom the others, one always staying alert for any danger and Freya followed his gaze "Did you ever tell Hagrid about Fluffy?"

"No, everything's been so hectic, I haven't even seen Hagrid in two weeks, and well…" Merlin trailed off and they did not talk as they walked back to the castle.

Merlin had not wanted to admit to Freya that he did not want to give their personal retreat. He valued the time they spent together in the woods, and he had really come to love the three headed dog, Merlin knew Hagrid felt guilty for Fluffy having run off, but he wasn't ready to give his friend up.

"Merlin" Gwaine said happily coming up to him "they're starting a dueling club"

"A dueling club?" Merlin asked being drug out of his reverie. Gwaine nodded enthusiastically and led him over to the notice board. At least half of the entire Gryffindor house was crowded around the small board and Gwaine pushed his way through so Merlin could see.

A single flyer was pinned up on the board announcing a dueling club that would be starting that evening at eight o' clock in the Great Hall.

"What'd you think?" Arthur asked coming up behind the two.

"I think it'll be fun" Gwaine said in his normally cheerful tone.

Merlin shrugged his shoulders "it could be useful to learn how to duel"

Eight o' clock came around and the three boys made their way down to the Great Hall. The normal house tables that lined the room had been replaced with a long golden stage set against one wall. Most of the school seemed to be packed into the dining hall, all carrying their wands eagerly.

Harry, Ron and Hermione were standing next to Merlin and he heard Hermione ask "I wonder who'll be teaching us? Someone told me Flitwick was a dueling champion when he was young—maybe it'll be him."

"As long as it's not—" Harry began just as Gilderoy Lockhart stepped out onto the stage.

"You had to jinx it" Merlin moaned along with close to the whole room. Just behind the man who was wearing robes in a deep plum color was a man dressed in black with a hooked nose that could usually be found in the potions chamber.

"Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent!

"Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions—for full details, see my published works.

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape" he shot a grin over at Professor Snape who Merlin was sure was plotting ways to slip some horrible potion into the man's food. "He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry—you'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!"

Merlin saw the annoyance in Snape's eyes as he and Lockhart faced each other on the stage. Lockhart gave a deep and fancy bow, Snape inclined his head and they both raised their wands. Lockhart then commented "As you see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position. On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course"

Merlin smirked as Snape raised one of his eyebrows slightly. "One—two—three—"

Both men swung their wands at one another Snape crying "_Expelliarmus!_"

There was a flash of red light that hit Lockhart in the center of his chest sending him flying backward off of the stage. Some of the Slytherins who were standing next to Morgana started cheering. There were squeals throughout the room as the girls who were still infatuated with Lockhart waited to see if he was okay.

Lockhart unsteadily pushed himself back up onto the stage running his hands through his wavy hair which had been messed up in the fall. "Well, there you have it. That was the Disarming Charm—as you see, I've lost my wand—ah, thank you, Miss Brown—yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind my saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you it would have been only too easy—however, I felt it would be instructive to let them see…"

Snape rolled his eyes and Merlin felt bad for the Potions master and he could not help but wonder why the man had volunteered for this position other than to disarm Lockhart in front of the majority of the student body.

"Enough demonstrating! I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me—" he began walking around the room putting them into groups.

Snape came through and partnered up Harry, Ron, and Hermione with Slytherin—Harry with Malfoy of course. He then walked over to where Merlin was standing with Arthur and Gwaine, the other members of their Quidditch team also having found their way next to them.

"Well, we might as well pit the new team against each other, Belby and Kirke, Graham and Wolpert, Coote and Coote, Mr. Pendragon and Miss Pendragon" he said to Arthur and Morgana walked up to him smugly "And the other Pendragon can go against Miss Malfoy".

Morgause walked up to Merlin with a very evil looking grin on her face. Merlin groaned under his breath as he pulled his wand to the ready.

"I'll go easy on you, promise" she taunted and Merlin scowled.

"I've heard that before, you didn't even show last time" he retorted.

She shrugged "Well, I was hoping to get you in detention… of course that didn't work so I might as well humiliate you now in front of the whole school".

"Sure you can beat me? I might humiliate you instead" he said.

She laughed "You're just a second year, there's no way you're going to beat me".

"Now" Lockhart called from the stage "Everyone face your partners and bow" Merlin and Morgause both bowed mockingly though the kept their eyes locked.

"Wands at the ready! When I count to three, cast your charms to Disarm your opponents—_only_ to disarm them—we don't want any accidents—one…two….three—"

"_Flipendo!_" Merlin cried sending a knockback charm at Morgause hoping to make her drop her wand.

"_Protego totalum_" she cried waving her wand, and Merlin was almost sure he had seen a faint glimmer of gold in the fourth-years eyes. Merlin's spell redoubled off of her shield charm and was headed back towards him.

Entirely forgetting he was holding his wand, he raised his other hand in front of him and repeated Morgause's spell. _"Protego totalum_"

A shield grew around him and sent his charm sailing past Morgause as his shield dissolved. Morgause's eyes were wide "That's a fourth-year spell, there's some _adults_ who have difficulty casting that charm!"

Merlin looked around him frantically to see everyone was too busy with their own duels that they had not noticed him using a fourth-year spell without his wand. "You can't tell anyone Morgause"

"Why would I, so you could get praised for beating me. It was a fluke! You got scared and your magic kicked in or something, I don't know, but you can't beat me, not fairly" she was shaking her head in frustration.

"Stop! Stop!" Lockhart called out turning Merlin and Morgause's attention to him where he was trying to break up Harry and Draco's duel.

"Draco!" Morgause hissed clearly annoyed.

"_Finite Incantatem!_" Snape called out pointing his wand at the laughing Malfoy and Harry whose legs were jerking around uncontrollably. When Snape's charm hit them, both boy's became quiet as the spells were thrown off.

The Great Hall was a mess, people were lying about, having been knocked down by other student's spells. A Green fog hung around the room from someone's misguided spell and Hermione and Millicent Bulstrode were fighting without their wands, needless to say, Bulstrode was winning until Harry pulled her off of Hermione.

"Dear, dear" Lockhart muttered walking through the students "I think I'd better teach you how to _block_ unfriendly spells… Let's have a volunteer pair—Lngbottom and Finch-FLetchley, how about you—"

"A bad idea, Professor Lockhart" Snape interrupted "Longbottom causes devastation with the simplest spells. We'll be sending what's left of Finch-Fletchley up to the hospital wing in a matchbox—How about Malfoy and Potter?"

"Excellent idea!" Lockhart crowed then motioned for the two boys to come up onto the stage, "Now Harry, when Mr. Malfoy here points his wand at you, you do _this_" he twirled his wand in a complicated way that resulted in him dropping it "Whoops—my wand is a little overexcited—"

"Potter doesn't have a chance" Morgause whispered to Merlin.

"Just like I didn't?" Merlin asked back and she scowled.

"You got lucky".

Snape whispered something into Malfoy's ear and the boy smirked which provoked a similar reaction on Morgause's face.

"Just do what I did Harry" Lockhart said cheerfully and backed away. Merlin heard Harry mutter "what, drop my wand?"

"Three—two—one—go!" Lockhart declared and Draco immediately raised his wand incancting _"Serpensortia_"

A long black snake popped out of the end of Malfoy's wand and fell heavily between the two dueling students raising itself into a striking position. There were screams from the crowd as snake-phobic students rushed to the back of the crowd which placed Merlin right at the foot of the stage directly in front of the snake.

"Don't move, Potter," Snape said in a lazy voice that barely hid his amusement "I'll get rid of it-"

"Allow me!" shouted Lockhart brandishing his wand at the hissing snake. The poor creature, already agitated from being summoned to strike down the conjurers foe was sent sailing ten feet into the air before smacking down violently on the stage. Fangs bared it blindly slithered forward ready to stick its venomous fangs into whoever was in its path, and of course that person was Merlin.

Merlin wanted to run, but his feet were frozen, his eyes locked onto the lidless ones of the snake. He felt a familiar drain of energy, something that had happened to him before, though not as powerful as then. The snake slithered closer readying itself to strike.

A hissing sound from Harry's direction and the snake calmed, its head lowering to rest on the floor of the stage. It was still looking at Merlin but the rage was gone, it was calmly flicking its tongue out to taste the air. It slowly moved forward and Merlin still did not move, though this time it was out of curiosity rather than fear.

The snake reached its head out and flicked its tongue at Merlin. Merlin held his hand out and the snake slithered onto it, coiling around it so it would not fall off, raising up the arm until its head rested next to Merlin's.

Merlin smiled goofily down at his new friend then up at Harry who was also smiling. "Mr. Pendragon, put the snake down so that I can end the spell"

Snape was looking down at him disapprovingly. "Do you have to, he seems pretty harmless".

"He was conjured for the soul purpose of infecting his enemy with his deadly venom, he is anything but harmless" Snape said angrily.

Merlin huffed but tenderly uncoiled the snake from around his arm and set the snake down on the floor, it kept its lidless gaze on Merlin as Snape waved his wand and sent the snake away.

Arthur put his hand on his brother's shoulder "are you okay?!"

"Fine, Harry called the snake off, nothing to worry about" he shrugged not seeing why Arthur was making such a big deal about this.

"Merlin" Morgana admonished stepping up beside her brothers "Slytherin was a parselmouth, he could talk to snakes, control them. It's one of the rarest abilities in the wizarding world, it's likely only a decedent of Slytherin would have that gift".

"A heir of Slytherin" Arthur put it.

"Harry? You think Harry could be behind this, one of his best friends is a muggle born, besides, the snake calmed down when he did whatever it was… would you call it talking…" he trailed off.

"It was probably a trap or something, he's a parselmouth Merlin!" Arthur said loudly as the rest of the school filtered out of the Great Hall, Ron and Hermione having already dragged Harry out.

"Sure Arthur, it was all an elaborate trap so the snake could bite me while no one was looking, when it could have done it in front of everyone and it would have been Snape and Draco's fault for conjuring it, then Lockhart's for making it mad!" Merlin argued.

"He is still a parselmouth Merlin" Morgana warned "and it looked like he just targeted you! Stay away from him" she warned.

"We sleep in the same room Morgana, that's going to be a little difficult" Merlin said.

"Then make sure your never in the room alone with him, stay with someone all the time, just don't let anything happen to you okay?" she asked with a fierce look in her eye.

He sighed, he was going to be watched even closer, as if that were possible but he agreed to her terms anyway, he knew she would not let him leave until he did "fine Morgana, I'll do my best to stay away from him".

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** Did you guys see that chapter coming, was it obvious or did it surprise you? Also, did anyone else feel bad for the snake being blown ten feet into the air then being dissolved into a bunch of sparks (in the movie at least, in the book it was a small puff of black smoke), animal cruelty? Anyway, hope you liked this chapter.**


	15. Chapter 15

The day after the dueling club Justin Finch-Fletchly and Headless Nick were found petrified in the middle of a hallway by none other than Harry Potter. If the rumors about him had been bad after the dueling club, they were being told as a fact now.

Most of the student body did their best to avoid Harry and when they could not escape the room he was in, they made sure to stay on the opposite side and always in groups. Merlin, reluctantly was one of those many people, Arthur making sure to keep Harry away from him.

Merlin knew Harry had meant no harm when he had spoken to the snake, but he also knew fear was a powerful thing and at the moment it had its icy fingers curled around Arthur's mind.

As well as keeping him away from Harry, Arthur had been trying to convince Merlin to at least have Christmas dinner with his family. He could see Arthur really wanted to fix their family, but he knew Uther would likely be against the idea of Merlin coming back.

"Arthur, are you sure Uther would want me to come over for Christmas dinner?" Merlin ventured.

"Of course he would, you're his son. I'm sure he misses you, I know Morgana does… and it even feels a little quitter to me without you around" he said somberly.

Merlin sighed, "Maybe Gaius'll be up for spending Christmas over there" Arthur tried to hide it, but Merlin could see the joy in his eyes. Merlin sent a letter to Gaius that night asking him what he thought about Arthur's request.

Gaius's reply came with the morning mail saying that he thought it was a good idea for him to try and keep his bond with his siblings strong. The old Physician promised he would write to Uther to see if he would let the two of them over for dinner—Gaius was adamant about not letting Merlin go back there alone.

The train ride back was spent much like the one to school, Merlin and Gwaine joking—usually at Arthur's expense—Arthur finding any chance he could to insult Merlin, Freya and Gwen laughing with each other. Morgana sat with them on this trip since Morgause had stayed at the castle, her and Draco's parents having had some reason for their kids to stay there.

She and Freya made quick friends, Gwen of course having already been friends with both of them, had them in a conversation in no time that the boys were paying no attention to.

"What're you guys doing for the holidays?" Gwaine asked.

"Staying with Gaius, no idea what we're going to do. He'll probably have me studying or something, not that that's a bad thing, he's why I'm doing so good this year" Merlin shrugged "then of course we're going over to have Christmas dinner with Arthur and Morgana".

"We're not really doing anything" Arthur said dismissively "what about your family?"

"They're taking me skiing, dad had read Lockhart's book and said that he really made the whole adventure way to dramatic. He wants to show me a real yeti and why Lockhart's not worth the books his pictures are printed on, of course I already know that, but I get to see a yeti!"

The three boys all talked about what Gwaine would do when they found the yeti until they reached King's Cross Station where Uther and Gaius were waiting for them. Morgana gave Merlin a hug, Arthur gave him a nod, Gaius and Uther barely acknowledged the others presence and Merlin felt quite uncomfortable.

Merlin and Gaius left for Gaius's house once again taking Gaius rarely used car. "How is your school year going?"

"Good, I think I'm doing a lot better in Potions this year, Professor Snape hasn't said anything about my potions in a whole month" he replied happily.

"Well, I should hope not. I was never a Professor at Hogwarts, but I am very well known for my own Potion brewing skills. I've done well enough to become one of the head doctors of St. Mungo's hospital" he said proudly.

"There have been some strange things going on though" he added quietly.

"What kind of strange things?" Gaius asked.

"Yeah, so far, there have been two students petrified, one cat, and one ghost. Also, we found writing on one of the walls saying that the Chamber of Secrets has been opened" Merlin told his guardian.

"The Chamber of Secrets?" he asked pulling into their driveway and turning off the car though neither of them got out "and you said there have been students petrified?"

"And a cat and ghost" Merlin reminded him. Gaius was quiet and Merlin felt like he needed to ask something else.

"You aren't going to keep me from going back are you?"

Gaius looked at him "No, I'm not going to keep you out… but I've always had a theory about what Salazar Slytherins beast could be—which reminds me, I don't want you poking around this!"

"Why does everyone assume I'm going to get involved in this?" pouted Merlin.

"Because Merlin, you have a knack for finding trouble" Gaius answered.

"Not true, it finds me" he argued as the two finally got out of the car and began carrying Merlin's things into the house.

* * *

A week passed with Gaius and Merlin going over some of the things he had learned in school, Gaius helping him to perfect things he was having trouble with, and applauding him for getting other things. Gaius was also kept busy with St. Mungo's, though he had promised Merlin he was taking off for Christmas day.

When Gaius was not busy with St. Mungo's and was not with Merlin, he could usually be found in his small library of books pouring over them intensely. Merlin had tried asking him what he was looking for, but the man had just said he was brushing up on some things.

Christmas Day finally came, and Merlin was a nervous wreck. He knew that with Gaius there it was very unlikely that Uther would do anything to him, but after his last night at his home, he was weary of the man who had taken care of him for eleven years.

"Don't be so nervous Merlin, it'll be fine. I'm sure Uther would not want to make Arthur and Morgana suspicious by even saying anything rude to you" Gaius said trying to be reassuring.

"I'm sure" Merlin had mumbled but was quiet the rest of the trip to busy trying to push down his nerves.

They rang the doorbell when they arrived to have Morgana swing the door open and tackle Merlin into a hug "Oh, I'm so glad you came Merlin," then she stood back and looked at Gaius "hello Gaius, it's nice to meet you"

"You as well… Morgana, I presume?" he asked kindly.

"Your right" Morgana said with a smile "Come on in, the cooks almost have dinner ready" she said and led them back into the house that was still familiar to Merlin.

"Arthur! Merlin's here" she called up the stair case as she led them into the living room. Uther was sitting on one of the chairs sipping at a glass of red wine. Merlin imagined the man would be making it through a whole bottle today by the looks of his face.

He stood when they came in, setting his glass on the table next to the chair. He held out his hand welcomingly "Hello Gaius, it's nice to see you, Merlin" he nodded at Merlin as he shook hands with Gaius.

"Uther, a pleasure as always" Gaius said pleasantly.

"Merlin, why don't you go and get Arthur, I believe dinner has been served by now" Uther said to the boy before picking up his wine glass and leading Gaius into the dining hall. Morgana followed behind her father and Gaius leaving Merlin to go and get Arthur.

He walked up the steps and down the hall and knocked on his brothers door "Arthur, Uther said the food was ready"

Arthur opened his door with a grin "Merlin!"

Merlin smiled back "Didn't you hear Morgana yell when I got here?"

"No, I've learnt to tune her out finally" he joked.

"C'mon, diner's ready" he said and the two boys walked down to the dining hall together to find Gaius and Uther sitting at opposite ends of the table and Morgana sitting between them on the side. The boys took their own seats across from Morgana, Arthur next to Uther and Merlin next to Gaius.

The food on the table looked as good as it ever had, though it did not stand anywhere near what they served at Hogwarts. When Uther began to put food onto his own plate, everyone else took that as their own que to begin doing the same.

As usual, the food was wonderful and for a moment Merlin was glad he had come, then Uther had to ruin it by talking.

"So Merlin, Arthur tells me your grades at that school have taken a turn for the better since you moved in with Gaius" Uther said conversationally, though he made sure to make his view on Hogwarts known through his tone.

"It has, he's been a big help" Merlin replied.

"What do you do Gaius?" Morgana asked before Uther could find another question to ask that would let him scorn Hogwarts without actually saying he did not like it.

"I am one of the head physicians at St. Mungo's hospital" he replied.

"That's why you were able to heal Merlin" she said in an understanding voice before slapping her hands over her mouth. Merlin put his head in his hands and waited for Arthur's outburst.

"Healed Merlin, what are you talking about?" Arthur asked just like Merlin had known he would. Morgana looked sheepishly away from Arthur as though that would fix everything.

"Morgana! What are you talking about?" he asked but she kept her eyes averted, he turned to Merlin who looked down at his food. He then turned his gaze onto to Uther "Father, what are they talking about?"

Arthur's biggest shock came when Uther avoided his eyes as well simply sipping at his wine. Merlin glanced up long enough to see Arthur's eyes narrow in annoyance before he turned on Gaius "What about you, will you tell me why you had to _heal_ my brother?"

"I'm sorry Arthur, but I'm under a doctor-patient confidentiality clause, if my patient does not want his medical history discussed, it is my duty to not tell anyone" Gaius said in a truly regretful voice.

"_Mer_lin, either you tell me or tell Gaius it's okay for him to tell me!" Arthur demanded.

Merlin looked up questioningly at Gaius who gave a small nod of encouragement. He looked at Morgana who was nodding her head fervently, then at Uther who looked murderous. His gaze went back to his new guardian and he nodded for the man to tell the story, keeping his own eyes down on his plate.

Gaius, ignoring Uther's glares looked to Arthur and began the tale "The night that I came to meet Merlin and the two of you, your family had went out. I imagined you had all went out together, but later I found that was not the case.

"You and your sister had gone to the town meeting with your father and had left your brother to go out all by himself. The boy had gone to the park, something he tells me he did often, there was no danger in it, nothing to worry about.

"Two men had been out at the same time—" Uther stood up his chair scraping against the floor with a harsh screech.

"Really Gaius, is this a tale for the dinner table, for Christmas nonetheless?"

"I want to hear this father" Arthur interrupted him and father and son had a battle of wills for a brief second before Uther sat back down and waved Gaius on.

"They had been drinking, but they were still sober enough to know what they were doing… that they were beating an eleven year old boy near to death…" Gaius trailed off and the table was silent. Arthur's face was shifting from furious to confused to sad to other emotions Merlin could not identify.

"But…"Arthur tried to find something that could disprove what Gaius was saying, but the white haired physician simply raised an eyebrow and Arthur had to except it as the truth "…Merlin"

The boy looked at his brother, guilt filled his blue eyes and Merlin felt bad that he had made him feel this way.

"Worse than that," Gaius went on and Arthur shook his head, a silent _What could be worse?_ filling the air. "They knew he had magic, and they explicitly told him that was why they were beating him"

Arthur's face was horrified as he looked up at Gaius and hissed "_What?_"

Gaius nodded his head sadly "I felt that it was not safe to let Merlin stay here since there were people who both knew of his magic and detested him for it" he looked directly at Uther when he said this, though Arthur did not notice.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Arthur asked quietly as he turned to face Merlin, his face was full of guilt and sorrow.

"I didn't want to get you in trouble… you would have tried to protect me or something else foolish and then they would have found out about you…I didn't want you to get hurt too" he replied just as quiet.

"I told you were an idiot for doing that" Arthur shook his head but there was humor in his eyes again. Morgana smiled sadly at their exchange, but shot a quick scathing look in Uther's direction. Merlin was still hiding that Uther had been the reason for the attack, but he was not about to fix that problem yet.

"I know" Merlin smiled back.

* * *

The rest of the evening had been full of the kids' laughter and their conversations with Gaius, Uther chose to retire early but told Gaius and Merlin they could stay as late as they wanted. It was a wonderful Christmas, but Merlin was still happy to be going back to Hogwarts.

They arrived back the day before term started to find that Hermione had been put into the Hospital Wing, though Harry and Ron assured them she had not been petrified. The day was spent catching up with all the other returning students as well as the ones who had stayed. Gwaine told them about his trip, apparently he had seen three different yetis.

The next day, classes started again and they fell back into the routine quickly.


	16. Chapter 16

So far this term had been mostly quiet, Hermione's mysterious stay in the Hospital wing being the only exciting thing to happen. She was let out at the beginning of February, but even then she would tell why she had been in there or why it had been for so long.

Merlin felt bad for her, especially when Gwaine kept trying to guess what the reason had been, things like studying until her eyes had fallen out or her head exploded from holding too much in it at one time. In some ways though, his ridiculous theories seemed to cheer her up, though Merlin was sure it was because it was so far from the truth.

Professor Lockhart had also noticed the lack of horrible events this term, but there was still a lack of cheer as those horrible events had still not been set right. Two students along with Mrs. Norris and the Gryffindor ghost were still waiting to be un-petrified and Harry was still being viewed as a dark wizard by most of the school, which included Arthur who still was trying his best to keep Merlin away from him.

February fourteenth finally came, and Lockhart's crazy idea of a morale booster became known. The man had employed a troop of diaper wearing dwarves to take Valentines to anyone the students wanted to send them too, poor Harry happened to be one of these recipients, and it did not go well for him.

When classes had ended and the Knights Quidditch practice started Merlin decided to sneak off and go visit with Fluffy. Merlin had wanted to ask Freya to come, but then remembered what day it was, instead he decided to go and find Fluffy on his own.

The walk to their clearing was so familiar now that forest, even when he was by himself did not seem very frightening. It was relaxing in a strange way, even as the clicks and rustles of the wildlife sounded around him.

He reached the clearing, the large white rock standing in the middle with the sun beating on its surface as always, to find that Freya had the same idea as him. She was already there rubbing Fluffly's stomach as the dog kicked his hind leg in excitement waving it in the air erratically. He gave a happy bark when he spotted Merlin which had Freya spinning around quickly to see what the dog had barked at.

She visibly relaxed when she recognized Merlin giving a sighed "hey".

"Hey, what are you doing out here?" Merlin asked coming up next to her to pet one of Fluffy's ears.

"Same as you, I guess" she replied petting the bridge of one of the other head's nose "just getting out of the castle for some air, playing with our dog"

"Hiding from the scary cupids?" he asked.

"Not that anyone would have sent me a Valentines, but yes" she admitted sheepishly. Harry's encounter with the dwarf had been hilarious and frightening at the same time and Merlin could hardly blame anyone for hiding out, just in case.

Fluffy suddenly turned over onto his stomach, all heads lifting up into an alert position growling softly as he glared into the forest, just noticeably shifting so that his large frame was in front of his two small playmates.

"What's going on?" Freya asked timidly leaning into Merlin who was trying to peer over Fluffy's back. A shadow moved in the forest and he ducked down behind Fluffy's large, protective back. From what he saw it was not human, it was large and it was fast. Worse than that, he could hear clicking and Fluffy gave out a large bark as he stood up making sure to stay in front of the two kids.

"We need to get out of here" Merlin whispered. Freya nodded and put her hand into Merlin's and slowly stood with him. Merlin reached his hand out to rest on Fluffy's back, trying to tell the dog that they were going to start moving back. Fluffy made a low grumbling noise in his left throat that head turned to look at them and Merlin took that as a go-ahead signal.

Pulling Freya's along with him he slowly made his way back onto the path trying not to draw any attention to himself as he walked over fallen leaves and limbs that seemed louder than usual. Fluffy began backing up with them one head always looking around the forest, one continuously growling, the other keeping its eyes trained on the kids.

They walked that way until Fluffy stopped growling then picked up their speed wanting to leave the forest as soon as they could. Fluffy escorted them until they had left the trees before sprinting back into his home.

Though it had not been a taxing walk, the fear they had been feeling had them panting as they walked up to the castle. Before they walked in, Merlin pulled Freya to a stop, her hand still in his. She looked at him confused.

"Please promise you won't go in there by yourself, even to see Fluffy. I don't know what that was, but it couldn't have been good for our health" he tried to joke.

She smiled past her still present fear "I'll wait until you want to go to"

"Thanks Freya" he smiled then on impulse pulled her into a hug which she returned before smiling again and walking off toward her common room. Merlin watched until she had gone out of sight before making his way to his own dormitory.

* * *

Merlin found he had not spent as much time in the forest as he had thought for when he had made it back to the common room, the Knights were still out practicing. He thought about going down and catching the last part of their drills but decided he wanted to turn in early instead.

He walked up to the stairs to the room he shared with the other Gryffindor second year boys. Each step that he climbed made him feel weaker than the last. Merlin did not give it much thought assuming that it was the drain from losing the adrenaline he was feeling earlier.

He pushed open the door to the room to find Harry bent over a book with his quill in his hand his face looking somewhat shocked before he looked up at him, shoving the book under his arm to shield it from view.

"Merlin, haven't seen you in a while" Harry commented.

"Without Arthur you mean?" Merlin smiled at Harry's comment and went to sit on his bed. Harry shifted so that he could still look at Merlin while keeping the book from his view.

"Yeah, without Arthur… you know I didn't mean anything with snake, right? I was telling it to stop I swear!" he cried and Merlin felt even more guilty.

"I know Harry… Arthur's just a little over protective is all. He knows you're not a bad person, but he also knows I don't exactly tell him when I'm in trouble either" he shrugged his shoulders sheepishly.

"He found out about the thing from this summer?" Harry guessed.

"He knows some guys beat me up because of my magic, not that his dad set it up though" Harry shook his head in disgust at the thought and Merlin added "you know I can see that book right?"

Harry's face reddened "uh…er… it's not what it looks like…"

"You aren't writing in a diary, or do you prefer journal?" Merlin teased.

"It's not a normal diary" Harry said excitedly pulling it out then taking up his quill he drew a small line across the page so Merlin could see. He watched in amazement as it disappeared then literally gasped when writing appeared on the page _Harry?_

"What…." Merlin was speechless.

"T.M. Riddle, he went here fifty years ago, this is his diary and somehow it can communicate with me" Harry explained and Merlin held his hand out, Harry placed the diary in Merlin's hand. When the binding of the book touched Merlin's flesh he let out a hiss of pain and dropped the book on the ground cradling his hand against his chest. A red welt had appeared where the book had touched him and Merlin and Harry gave each other searching looks.

Harry picked the journal up to see writing appearing _Harry, who was that?_

Harry looked questioningly at Merlin who nodded at him to go ahead. _Merlin Pendragon_ Harry wrote.

_Is he your friend? _Riddle asked.

_Yes, you can trust him_ Harry replied.

_Do you still want to know what happened fifty years ago?_ Riddle invited and Harry wrote a hasty reply.

_Please, can you tell me anything?_

_ No_ came the quick reply that was quickly followed by _but I can show the both of you_ before a blinding flash of light and a feeling of being dragged by the front of his shirt jerked Merlin into Dumbledore's office, though it was not Dumbledore behind the desk.

A boy of about sixteen entered and sat down at the man's invitation. They talked for a few minutes about a request the boy had made, about wanting to stay at Hogwarts year round. It turned out, that over the holidays, he had to live in an orphanage, and he did not want to go back.

The Headmaster—Professor Dippet the boy called him—had to refuse his request due to 'certain circumstances' and the recent deat girl, he even mentioned the Ministry was thinking about shutting Hogwarts down. Riddle, who Merlin finally made the connection to, looked distraught and quickly suggested if the person behind the attacks were caught that school might stay open.

Dippet had been excited that he might have a lead, but Riddle said he knew nothing and left only to stand out in one of the corridors with his brows furrowed in deep thought. A tall man with sweeping robes and long auburn hair had walked up and Merlin could hardly help but be surprised, Dumbledore had hardly changed.

The man asked him what he was doing out so late, though he did it with a kind and worried voice also mentioning the girl's death. Tom told him he had been to see the headmaster and promised that he would be going back to his dormitory, though when Dumbledore turned away, he headed down to the very chamber that Snape taught his potions class in.

Riddle pushed the door almost closed, standing in the shadows, waiting. They stood there for what felt like an hour though Harry and Merlin still did not talk, to intent on what was happening in Riddle's time.

Finally, the sound of someone creeping past the chamber and Riddle moved to follow the footsteps. He followed them for almost five minutes when he stopped outside of a door where they could hear faint whispers coming from.

"C'mon… gotta get yeh outta here… into the box… C'mon now…"

The boy stepped into a corner of the room, making sure to stick to the shadows as he watched the slightly smaller figure of Hagrid try and coax something into a large box.

"Evening, Rubeus," Riddle said sharply.

Young Hagird slammed the door of the cabinet he had been talking into shut and turned swiftly around. "What yer doin' down here, Tom?"

"It's all over" he said stepping closer to the giant boy "I'm going to have to turn you in, Rubeus. They're talking about closing Hogwarts if the attacks don't stop."

"What d'yeh—"

"I don't think you meant to kill anyone. But monsters don't make good pets. I suppose you just let it out for exercise and—"

"It never killed no one!" cried Hagrid backing up against the wall.

"Come on, Rubeus, the dead girl's parents will be here tomorrow. The least Hogwarts can do is make sure that the thing that killed their daughter is slaughtered…"

"It wasn't him!" Hagrid roared "He wouldn'! He'd never!"

"Stand aside" Riddle threatened pulling out his wand. He sent a spell at the cabinet and the dark chamber was filled with light that blasted the door off of its hinges. Something with many legs crawled out of the cabinet and Riddle tried to catch it with another spell but Hagrid caught his arm until it had gotten away.

The scene went dark and the boys felt a rush of wind and they were sitting back in their dormitory. They both looked at each other and when Merlin saw the worry in Harry's eyes Merlin had to say "It was not Hagrid".

Harry just looked down at the diary and Merlin could see the doubt in his eyes.

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	17. Chapter 17

Merlin could see that Harry was still confused about what Riddle's diary had shown the two of them but Merlin was unsure of how he could reassure him about the giant man's innocence, even if Arthur was letting him near Harry. Arthur had been annoyed with Merlin when he found out he had not left the room immediately when he had found Harry by himself in there.

The next day, they were all given the chance to pick classes for their third year, though they were still required to take the subjects they were currently in, but they were allowed to take up electives.

Merlin was sure that Morgana was going to pick Divination and he hoped that the class would be of some help to her, he knew the nightly visions were hard for her to handle. He was not sure though, if he really wanted to take that elective. Ancient Runes called to him somewhat, though he was unsure what the benefit of such a class could be, and he could see that Arthur and Gwaine were not very interested in the idea.

"I don't know Merlin, why would you want to know what a rune means anyway?" Arthur asked.

"It could be useful" he shrugged.

"If you take Divination with us, we'll take Runes with you" Gwaine offered.

"Why do you want to take Divination?" Merlin asked.

"It's the only class that gets so few students that every house is put into the class at once. I've convinced all the Knights to take it, you're the only one who was thinking about skipping it over" he explained "plus, it's divination, how hard can looking into a crystal be?"

Merlin felt an eerie chill travel down his spine but ignored it and nodded as he marked Divination and Ancient Runes on his sign up sheet. "Fine, you have a deal"

Other than those two classes the boys also signed up for Care of Magical Creatures, it was a good class to take and it usually gave the kids a chance to go out doors for a class period.

After signing up for the third year classes, the second year's attentions were brought back to the Quidditch championships, the next game being between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. Arthur and the other Knights were excited to see the outcome of the game, whichever team won would be playing against the Knights the next week.

Arthur had told Merlin that he hoped Gryffindor came out as the winner of this match since the last time the two teams had played it had an unfair interference from the rogue bludger. He admitted it was a fair end the way Harry had caught the snitch even as he was being chased by the ball, it did not change the fact that the teams were playing at their best.

Since then the Knights had won two games and lost one, the one they lost happened to be against Hufflepuff. They had won in a landslide against Slytherin, second years or no they were good players, and had beaten Slytherin easily though the scores had been closer than with Ravenclaw. Elyan easily overtook Malfoy when they had caught sight of the snitch even though Malfoy was riding a nimbus Two Thousand and One, it did not make up for the skill and determination that the other team had to win.

The day before the game, when the three friends had been walking back to their dorms they found their room a mess, the mess radiating around Harry's bed.

The boy's things were strewn across the room, his books were thrown about recklessly, his bed sheets tore down from where they had been made up. His trunk lay open, contents spilled over the ground, drawers pulled out and the pockets to all his pants pulled out.

"Someone was looking for something" Ron said horror struck.

Merlin saw Harry's face pale as he moved closer to Ron, and he was sure the boy said the words "Riddle's diary's gone"

"He should stop worrying, it's not like they took anything" Gwaine said looking at Harry as they sat at breakfast the next morning. It was the day of the Quidditch match and they were waiting until it was time to walk down to the Quidditch pitch. Harry had told everyone that nothing was missing, though Merlin was sure it was so Dumbledore would not hear about the mysterious, magical diary.

Harry's eyes kept roving over everyone in his field of vision like he was looking something. Merlin could almost hear him wondering who had the diary now, and Merlin could not blame him for wanting to know. Whoever it had been had to have known the diary was special to want to steal it, and they had to have been a Gryffindor to even be inside of the tower.

That did not mean however that whoever had stolen it had not given it to someone else for whatever reason, though Merlin doubted that theory. As likely as it was that anyone could know about the diary, it was even more unlikely that it would be someone outside of Gryffindor House. Another thing is how the person could have managed convincing a Gryffindor to steal from one of their house mates, it was all too unlikely.

"You're not worried?" Merlin asked "someone broke into our room and rifled through one of or room-mates things and you're not worried?"

Gwaine's cheeks turned a hue of pink as he looked down "not enough to make me too distracted to do my best in a Quidditch game"

"I'm sure he'll be in perfect condition to play once he's on the Quidditch pitch" Merlin defended.

"What makes you so sure Merlin?" Arthur asked quizzically.

Merlin shrugged "I don't know, it's just that it freaked me out that somebody was going through our stuff, seeing as they really only looked through Harry's, I can sympathize with how he's feeling"

Arthur rolled his eyes and stood up "Stop being a girl Merlin and lets go on down to the Quidditch pitch"

Gwaine laughed good naturedly at Merlin's annoyed look and walked after Arthur leaving the boy nothing to do but to follow his two friends as they walked down to the Quidditch Pitch. The whole student body filed into the stands and Merlin managed to find Lancelot, Leon, Gwen and Morgana to sit with.

Morgana looked pale and tired and Merlin could not help but think she resembled the way he felt. During breakfast he had a sudden lack of energy like he had come down with a horrible flu. Morgana smiled weakly at him when she saw that he looked just as bad as she did.

They were talking about how they thought the match would end when the two teams made their way out of the locker rooms and to the middle of the field where Madam Hooch was waiting to start the game. The players were just mounting their brooms when Professor McGonagall came out onto the field herself carrying a purple megaphone.

"This can't be good" Leon said quietly as he watched McGonagall walk up.

McGonagall raised the megaphone "This match has been canceled. All students are to make their way back to the House common rooms, where their Heads of Houses will give them further information. As quickly as you can, please!"

There was a lot of boos and shouts though Merlin was not paying attention as he watched McGonagall motion Harry to follow her and Ron join them a moment later. The Professor looked worried and stressed and both boys looked confused.

"This is not good" Morgana said her eyes going wide in fear, fear Merlin knew came with her nightmares as they came true.

He was about to ask her what she had seen when the teachers that had come to watch the game began ushering the students out of the stands and toward their dorms. Merlin lost Morgana in the crowd as Arthur and Gwaine surrounded Merlin on their way off of the stands.

It did not take long to figure out what had happened, two more students had been found petrified, one a Ravenclaw prefect named Penelope Clearwater, the other, Hermione Granger.

Professor McGonagall escorted Harry and Ron back to the common room, both boys looked pale as death and were obviously upset likely just having found out about Hermione. The Professor looked grim and upset as she addressed the Gryffindor students, reading from a scroll.

"All students will return to their House common rooms by six o' clock in the evening. No student is to leave the dormitories after that time. You will be escorted to each lesson by a teacher. All further Quidditch training and matches are to be postponed. There will be no more evening activities"

She looked around at all of their stricken faces. These rules allowed them to go to class and to the dormitory and then to meals, all escorted, the attacks had become so bad that the teachers were afraid to leave the students unattended.

"I need hardly add that I have rarely been so distressed. I t is likely that the school will be closed unless the culprit behind these attacks is caught. I would urge anyone who thinks they might know anything about them to come forward"

No one moved and McGonagall gave a forlorn sigh before turning and leaving the tower through the portrait hole.

Night came soon, but not quickly enough for Merlin as everyone was stuck in the Gryffindor tower, but finally it was late enough to go to sleep. He woke in the middle of the night to find Harry and Ron's beds empty and Harry's trunk open. Merlin guessed the two had snuck out under Harry's father's cloak though he was unsure where the two had went, though he did guess that it would have something to do with this mystery.

For once the boy listened to the people who constantly told him to be careful and turned over and went back to sleep instead of trying to follow his fellow Gryffindor's.

The next morning Merlin would slightly regret his decision for not following when he found out that Hagrid had been arrested and sent to Azkaban prison, the worst wizarding prison there was, and Dumbledore was suspended from his duty as Headmaster. Apparently all twelve governors had signed the papers that demanded Dumbledore's suspension and it was brought before them by Lucius Malfoy himself.

There were whispers that the man had blackmailed the other governors into signing the petition, but rumors did little in the way of reinstating their headmaster. They were searching for a replacement, but until one could be found, Professor McGonagall, the deputy Headmistress was taking charge of the school and she was making sure the new rules were being enforced.

The teachers were walking the kids from class to class and even to meals, there dorms, and to everyone's displeasure, the restrooms as well. The students and staff were all grim or scared, they all knew the school was likely to be closed that or they were going to be the next victim, everyone except Lockhart.

The blonde haired teacher smiled brightly at his class when they came in, not seeing why everyone was so down. "They've caught the culprit, the minister would not have arrested Hagrid if he didn't have anything to do with it"

Arthur and Gwaine had to hold Merlin back and kept their hand over his mouth so he could not make a scene in the middle of the class, it would not have done anyone any good.

The students however were no longer looking at Harry like he was evil, in fact a few of them had come up to him and apologized for how they had acted to him. They admitted that there was no way he would have hurt Hermione, and anyone who knew about his home life knew he did not want the school to be closed.

It was three days before exams when Professor announced to the whole school that she had good news. "Professor Sprout has informed me that the Mandrakes are ready for cutting at last. Tonight, we will be able to revive those people who have been Petrified. I need hardly remind you all that one of them may well be able to tell us who, or what attacked the. I am hopeful that this dreadful year will end with our catching the culprit" the room was full of cheering.

Merlin, Arthur, and Gwaine went so far as to stand up at the good news and noticed many other students doing the same. Soon their friends were going to be back and hopefully the school would be able to stay open.

A barn owl swooped down in front of Merlin, a letter clapped firmly in its beak that Merlin took from the large eyed creature. He stroked its chest feathers gratefully before opening the letter.

_Merlin,_

_I was thinking about the creature you said was wondering around Hogwarts, and I saw in the _Daily Prophet_ that Hagrid was arrested and Dumbledore suspended. I looked up everything you told me that was happening, the dead chickens, the petrification's, the lack of spiders in the school, it all adds up to one thing. _

_I've sent a letter to Professor Dumbledore and to Professor McGonagall, but I wanted to tell you to be careful. The creature is a basilisk, if you look it straight in the eye, you will be killed, if you see its reflection, or through something like a ghost, you can be petrified. Spiders are scared of it and the crow of a rooster can mean death. It has venomous fangs and it is a giant snake. That is why the heir of Slytherin would be able to control it, because it is likely the heir of Slytherin would be a parslemouth. _

_Please be careful Merlin, I've sent this letter to the Headmaster and McGonagall, you do not need to do anything. Do not go looking for it Merlin. _

_Hoping you stay safe, _

_Gaius Davies_

_Gaius Davies_

Merlin looked up at the windows waiting for another owl to swoop into the window and land next to McGonagall. Gaius had said to do nothing but he did not see the owl and was considering taking the letter to Headmistress right then when someone bumped into him.

He looked around to see Ginny Weasley looking up at him her face pale and her eyes slightly unfocused like she was listening to someone whispering into her ear.

"Ginny" he said politely and she tried to focus on him but he gaze still seemed far off.

"Merlin, hey, could I ask you a favor?" she looked down like she was trying to act sheepish, but the way she said the words was like she was reading from a script unsure of where she was going with what she was saying.

"Sure, of course" he said anyway, he knew she was Ron's sister and she was nice, though the two had never really talked before.

"Could you come with me back to the dormitory, I left my book and I don't want to make a teacher walk me back, not that they would, but I really need it and I don't want to go by myself…" she looked up at him almost pleadingly. He looked over his shoulder to see Arthur and Gwaine talking to the Weasley twins, the four paying no attention to the two of them.

He looked back down at Ginny's imploring eyes and sighed. Merlin let Gaius's letter slip out of his hand and land forgotten on the table top "Sure Ginny, but we have to be quick, I don't want to get caught"

"Thanks a lot Merlin" she said sweetly and led the boy out of the Great Hall. Merlin had no idea how the red headed girl had managed to get them out of the Hall without being seen and he was incredibly impressed.

He followed her down a long hallway, not paying much attention to where they were going until they passed the stair case that led up to the Gryffindor tower. He sped up so that he was walking beside her and pointed behind them while saying "the stairs are back there Ginny".

"Oh yeah… I need to stop by the bathroom first, I hope you don't mind" she said dispassionately as she kept walking.

Merlin raised one eyebrow but kept walking until they came to a door with a women's bathroom sign on it. He stopped walking and Ginny turned to look at him.

"Are you going?" he asked when she continued to stare at him like she did not understand why he had stopped moving. Ginny looked up at the sign on the door and a small glimmer of comprehension dawned her still mostly lifeless eyes.

She turned to face him her expression turning back to that fake sheepish look again, "um, well, what if whatever's attacking the students is in there?"

Merlin tried to imagine a giant snake inside of the bathroom, he could see why the girl might be a little apprehensive, but he had no idea what she expected him to do. "Er, what do you want me to do?"

"Check it out, make sure there's nothing in there" she suggested and when Merlin did not move put her hand on his back and shoved him towards the door. He took a deep breath and walked in, Ginny right on his heels. She whispered from behind him "check by the sink"

He had no idea what she meant but walked over to the ornamental sink and heard from behind him a strange hissing sound "Close your eyes Ginny, it's a basilisk".

Merlin clamped his eyes shut as he heard the sound of a grate opening up in front of him.

He peeked open one eye, curious about what had made the noise when he heard Ginny speak from behind him "Smart boy"

Merlin felt her hand between his shoulder blades as she pushed him into a hole that had opened up right where the sink had stood and then all he saw was black.

.

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** Cliffhangers, don't you love them, I do! Anyway, I encourage you all to review and to keep reading as always. **


	18. Chapter 18

Merlin woke up to find himself laying on a bed of bones. Thousands of small rodent bones littered across the chamber, next to him a large curved snake. Again he quickly closed his eyes not wanting to be petrified or worse.

He was about to call out to Ginny but caught himself. She had pushed him down here, she had tricked him into following her, she, Ron's little sister, was the heir of Slytherin.

A memory of her dead looking eyes, glazed over and barely seeing filled his mind and knew it could not be her. Whatever was going on, whoever was doing this, they were using Ginny as a puppet.

"It's only the skin, the monster won't come until it's called" the fiery haired girl said calmly. Merlin felt a shiver travel down his spine he had not noticed she was down here with him. "Get up!"

Merlin slowly rose to his feet, bones crunched under him as he shifted his weight and turned to look at her "What's going on, what's wrong with Ginny?"

Her voice took on a mock sweet tone as she said "I am Ginny, now move" she pointed forward with her wand. Merlin knew he could win a fight against her, but he did not want it to come to that, he wanted to find a way to break whatever spell she was under so they could both get out of there.

She forced him along a long tunnel that must have run beyond the school walls as long as it was. With each step Merlin's mind went from trying to find a way to break Ginny out of this and worrying about how far underground they were. They came to end of the tunnel where a solid wall stood with two entwined serpents on it both looking at the two students with life-like eyes.

Again from behind him he heard a snake-like hiss, but this time he realized what it was. He spun around to face Ginny, surprise etched on his face "parsletongue?"

The girl did not react, instead watched as the two serpents slid apart and the stone wall cracked in two making a doorway for them to walk through.

Merlin could not stop his mouth from opening in awe. The chamber was huge, the ceiling so high he had trouble making it out and it was at least half as long as the tunnels they had just walked through to get there.

Ginny said another word in parsletongue and Merlin turned to see the stone doorway closing behind them and he muttered under his breath "Not getting out that way then"

The girl finally lowered her wand and she stalked ahead of Merlin walking through the stone pillars that lined the chamber and up to the base of the largest statue Merlin had ever seen. The boy had to crane his neck back just to take in the whole thing, and as he looked he assumed he was seeing Salazar Slytherin himself.

His attention was brought back to Ginny when she stopped a few yards away from his feet and dropped a black book onto the stone ground and took a few steps back.

"You stole Riddle's diary from Harry!" he accused though Ginny acted like she had not even heard him. The pages began to flip open as though a strong wind had just blown through the wind though none had. It fell open near the middle and flash of light illuminated the pages as a young man who Merlin recognized to be Tom Riddle stepped out. "Tom?"

He looked over at Merlin and smiled, once again a shiver rippled down the boy's spine just before his knees gave out. He fell heavily to the floor, though he managed to stay sitting up. That feeling, the one where he lost all his strength had come back and at the worst possible time. Tom's smile grew wider and more smug as he saw the boy's brow begin to bead with sweat.

He walked towards the boy and Merlin felt the need to back away but he did not want to show any weakness in front of this person. "Feeling a little under the weather, I'm not surprised, you are, after all, in the basilisk's lair after all"

Merlin looked up at the gloating teen with confusion clearly written on his face "Gaius didn't say the basilisk could make people sick"

Tom smiled in understanding "your uncle, I'm not surprised he figured it out, he was well known even in my day. It is odd that he would not have guessed you would be affected by the basilisk in this way, after all, he would have been as well, and with as much power as you possess, he can hardly deny what you are"

"What are you talking about?" Merlin tried to push himself back onto his feet, but his legs were still not working, it was taking most of his energy just to talk to Tom.

"Basilisks are creatures of magic, something like dragons, though their line has been polluted to the point that they are no longer pure creatures of magic, nothing like their ancient ancestors. They create a strange reaction in people who are able to use that branch of magic, they drain their energy when they're near. I'm not sure why it happens, but it is a wonderful way to weed out users of the Old Religion" he said maliciously.

"That blonde witch, and your sister, they both react to the Basilisk's presence though not as strongly as you. It is a show of power, the more magic you have, the more it affects you" he gloated.

"Great, so since you know so much about this, I'm guessing you're the heir of Slytherin?" Merlin deadpanned. Tom was right, he felt horrible and he was in no mood to listen to the boy gloat about his plan, he just wanted to get Ginny and himself to safety.

"Very good" Tom congratulated "I am Slytherin's heir" he paused as though waiting for Merlin to gasp or faint in shock though he just stared at him. Riddle frowned slightly at Merlin's lack of reaction then looked over his shoulder before turning back to the boy with his smile back in place "And soon, I'll be back in the world of the living"

He stepped out of Merlin's field of vision so that he could see Ginny who was now lying on the stone floor. She was panting and her eyes were wide with fear as she looked up towards the ceiling. sMerlin rounded on Tom spitting out "What did you do to her?"

"I'm taking her life force" he replied calmly "as she dies, I become more real"

Merlin's eyes widened and he finally managed to pull himself to his feet and ran over to the dying girl. She looked into his eyes, panic clear to see as she gasped for breath. Merlin took her hand in his and felt his eyes change to gold.

Her breathing slowed and she looked less scared though it was obvious she was still dying. She whispered "Your eyes…"

Tom stood over Merlin and Ginny looking down at them with a hint of amusement. "You might have slowed it, but you can't stop it. She's going to die, and I'm going to come back"

"Who are you?!" shouted Merlin annoyed at this boy for doing all of this. He had no idea why he was brought down here, or how he had managed to make Ginny do what he wanted. All Merlin knew was that they had to get out of here and there was no way to do that.

Riddle smiled then turned his head when he heard the sound of the stone wall opening again. His eyes brightened in anticipation as he said "Our other guest has arrived"

Merlin looked toward the stone opening to see Harry walk in, wand raised and head high with no one accompanying him. He could have screamed but he still felt like he was about to pass out.

"Harry!" Merlin called but he felt a wave of nausea crash over him before he could warn the boy to stay away.

"Ginny!" the dark haired boy called out seeing the girl lying on the ground, he clearly expected her to be there, but his voice was confused when he saw the others "Merlin? Tom?"

He ran up next to Ginny and Merlin trying to wake her up, Merlin was about to tell him they had to get out of there when Tom spoke up.

"She won't wake"

Harry looked horrified as he asked "What do you meant she won't wake, she's not—she's not—?"

"She's still alive" he assured "but only just"

Merlin scowled up at the boy as Harry asked "Are you a ghost?"

"A memory, preserved in a diary for fifty years" he answered. He pointed to the diary Ginny had set on the ground earlier.

Harry looked like he wanted to ask how the diary ended up there but decided it was not important and looked at Merlin "Are you okay? Can you help me get Ginny out of here?"

"I'm fine, let's get out of here" Merlin mumbled and put his hands around Ginny's feet as Harry cradled her head ready to pick her up. They were just about to lift her when Harry told him to wait.

"Let me get my wand" he said and placed her head down on his knees and reached out to grab his wand to find it was no longer beside of him "Did you see—?"

Harry looked up at Riddle who was twirling his wand between his fingers "Tom, please give me my wand, there's a basilisk somewhere in here, we have to get out"

Merlin was surprised to hear that Harry knew that the creature was a basilisk but did not say anything though he knew Tom was unlikely to hand Harry back his wand.

He smiled that same disturbing smile as before as he said "It won't come until it is called".

"What d'you mean?" Harry asked starting to get annoyed "Look, give me my wand, I might need it—"

"You won't be needing it" he said as his smile widened.

"What d'you mean, I won't be—?"

"He's the heir of Slytherin Harry, he's not on our side, _we have to go!_" Merlin cried. He had not said anything until now because he was sure it would make Riddle do whatever he was planning faster and he was in no condition to face whatever he had in store for them. It had gone on too long though, he had to get Ginny out of there, he could feel her still slipping away though his magic was doing its best to hold her spirit inside of her body, to keep her breathing.

Harry looked at Merlin horror stricken "But—he caught Hagrid last time—"

Riddle laughed at Harry's tone before talking again "I've waited a long time for this, Harry Potter; for the chance to see you. To speak to you".

"Why—" Harry looked desperate and confused and Merlin was fairly sure that he was going to pass out if they did not leave soon.

"Harry, we need to get out of here!" Merlin pleaded trying to get the boy to stop listening to Riddle's ghost or memory or whatever the boy had said he was. '

"Sorry, but you aren't leaving just yet" Riddle said threateningly.

Harry looked down at Ginny whose head was still lying on his lap "How did Ginny get like this?"

"I can be very persuasive" he said glancing down at Ginny's still form "the diary, _my_ diary, she's been writing in it for months, pouring her soul into it. She told me all about her life, her family, her friends, her _brother's friends_. She mentioned how her brothers tease her, how she had to come to school with secondhand robes and books, how" Riddle's eyes glinted " how she didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter would _ever_ like her…"

Merlin scowled at Riddle "As I fed on the diet of her deepest fears, her darkest secrets, I slowly began to become powerful, far more powerful that little Miss Weasley. Powerful enough to start feeding Miss Weasley a few of _my_ secrets, to start pouring a little of _my_ soul back into _her…_"

"What d'you mean?" Harry asked quietly.

"Haven't you guessed yet, Merlin has" he said looking over at Merlin who had closed his eyes in remorse for Ginny "Ginny Weasley opened the Chamber of Secrets. She stangled the school roosters…" Riddle kept talking but Merlin tuned him out. He was looking at Ginny and he thought he saw her take in a larger breath, _could she hear them?_

"Stop it!" he yelled looking up at Riddle who was still going on with his rant "you made her do all of it, stop saying it like it was her fault!"

Riddle looked a little taken aback that Merlin had yelled at him but did not let it show for long before he was smiling again "True, I was controlling her when she did all of that, he diary entries got quite more interesting after that, she couldn't remember what I made her do, but she started suspecting, that's when she tried to throw away the diary, that's when you, Harry, picked it up, the very person I wanted to meet, or at least one of them."

"And why did you want to meet me?" Harry asked.

"Dear Ginny hear told me all about you, about your history. I found it very interesting that such a young child could defeat Lord Voldemort, _twice!_ I was very curious about how you were able to do such a thing"

His eyes moved away from Harry and landed on Merlin "She mentioned you too of course, though not as much, seems she doesn't find you quiet as interesting as the 'boy who lived'. She told me how you were kidnapped by the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher last year, how he turned out to be what was left of Lord Voldemort. She said she wasn't sure why he had taken any interest in you, but you were at the top of your class. I asked how you reacted after the attacks from the basilisk, she told me how you always seemed to fall ill and then I knew. You have a special kind of magic, it's no wonder Lord Voldemort wanted you"

He looked back at Harry "I knew I had to find out more about you, talk to if I could. So I decided to show you my famous capture of that great oaf, Hagrid, to gain your trust—"

"Hagrid's my friend" Harry said voice shaking "you framed him!"

Riddle laughed, "Everyone seemed to buy it easily enough, everyone except for Dumbledore, the Transfiguration Professor that is"

"I bet Dumbledore saw right through you" Harry said through gritted teeth. Merlin's own teeth were held tightly together in a grimace as well, but for him it was because the pain was getting worse.

Neither of the two seemed to notice Merlin as they continued to talk, he was reaching for his wand, they had to get out, they had to go _soon_.

"_Expelliarmus!" _ Riddle said almost lazily waving Harry's wand making Merlin's wand fly out of his hands and Riddle caught it easily. "Nice try, not that you even need a wand, but I suggest you keep that magic, don't want to let Ginny slip away do you?"

Harry looked at Merlin confused "She's dying. I'm trying to keep her alive, but she's slipping away"

Harry's eyes widened again as he looked from Merlin to Riddle, hoping he could find a lie between one of them, hoping that Ginny was not that close death. Riddle simply smiled again and started back into their conversation as though there had been no interruption.

"I knew I couldn't open the Chamber again while I was attending, but I wasn't going to waste those long years I had spent searching for it. I decided to leave a diary, preserving my sixteen-year-old self in its pages so that one day I could follow the footsteps of the grand Salazar Slytherin himself".

"But you didn't, no one's died this time" Harry said triumphantly.

"Haven't I already said that killing mudbloods doesn't matter to me anymore? For months now, my new target has been the two of you" he said looking between Harry and Merlin. Harry stared at him and Merlin tried his best to keep from throwing up.

"I made Ginny write her own farewell on the wall, then I had her lead Merlin down here, thinking her the sweet innocent little girl that she normally is, he followed willingly, at least until she pushed him into the tunnels. For you Harry, I knew you'd follow as soon as you thought the girl was in danger, and here you are. I have many questions for you Harry Potter"

"Like what?" Harry spat.

"Well, how is it that you—a skinny boy with no extraordinary magical talent—managed to defeat the greatest wizard of all time? How did _ you_ escape with nothing but a scar, whlle Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed?"

"Why do you care how I escaped?" Harry asked "Voldemort was after your time…"

"Voldemort is my past, present, and future, Harry Potter…" He took Harry's wand and traced his full name into the air in fiery letters TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE with another swipe of the wand the letters rearranged themselves to say I AM LORD VOLDEMORT.

Merlin's and Harry's eyes both widened in fear as they realized what this meant, once again the two boys were facing down the darkest wizard in their world.

"You didn't think I would keep my muggle father's name did you, that is hardly fitting for the greatest sorcerer in the world!"

"You're not" Harry choked out.

"Not what?" snapped Riddle.

"The greatest sorcerer in the world" Harry said bravely then moved Ginny's head gently down to the ground and stood to face Riddle "The greatest sorcerer in the world is Albus Dumbledore"

Riddle sneered "Dumbledore? Dumbledore was driven from this castle by the mere _memory_ of me!"

Music, haunting and echoing, filled the chamber as a brilliant red bird swooped over their heads and dropped something into Harry's hands before perching on his shoulder "Fawkes?"

"This is what Dumbledore sends his defender! A songbird and an old hat! Do you feel brave, Harry Potter? Do you feel safe now?" Harry did not answer and Merlin was worried Riddle's words had gotten to Harry as he sadly admitted that he did not see what the phoenix or the hat could do for them. "To business, Harry, how did you survive, the longer you talk, the longer you live"

Merlin felt Ginny's spirit growing fainter and he hoped Harry had a plan. "My mother gave her life for me, my _muggle-born_ mother, that's all I know. She stopped you killing me, and I saw you, the real you last year. You're a wreck. You're barely alive, that's where all your power got you—"

Riddle's face contorted in rage before he forced it into a smile.

"She died to save you, that is powerful magic indeed. I wondered you see, we have quite a few similarities Harry, you must have noticed, but, after all, it was just a lucky chance" Riddle's face grew into an even more horrifying smile "Now, it's time I taught you a little lesson. Let's match the powers of Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, against famous Harry Potter, and the best weapons Dumbledore can give him…"

Merlin wanted to stand beside Harry, to say that he was not alone, that he would fight with him, but Riddle's next words stopped him "And I suggest you not ask your friend for any help, or else your little girl friend their will die within minutes, you're magic is the only thing keeping her alive, as soon as you break contact, its over"

Merlin frowned as Riddle began hissing something and Harry's eyes widened in fear, but he took the time to look at Merlin "Don't let her die, I promise, I'll defeat him"

Merlin nodded though it went against everything in him. Riddle looked over and smirked "you should probably shut your eyes, just in case, wouldn't want you looking into my pets eyes on accident"

Slytherin's stone mouth opened and the large snake slithered out, Merlin shut his eyes and leaned down. The closer the monster came, the worse he felt. He focused on Ginny, trying to put the giant snake that was only a few yards away out of his mind, though that failed when he heard the booming noise of its cries of pain.

Curiosity getting the better of him, he looked up to see Fawkes gouging the creatures eyes out of its head, the snake writhing in agony as it tried to snap at the bird.

"THE BOY! LEAVE THE BIRD, GET THE BOY!" Riddle yelled as it kept snapping at the red bird. The snake listened and lifted its head to smell the air before heading right towards Harry. The boy dodged out of the way of the great tail as it smashed toward him throwing the Sorting Hat the boy had dropped earlier back into his hands.

He shoved it on his head and jumped out of the way of the blind serpent yet again as it swept its tail around wildly.

Ginny's breaths were coming shorter and Riddle looked over at the two "She's almost gone"

Merlin scowled looking down at the girl, he moved his hand up to her head, he let his eyes glow again "_Ic pe purh_ _Ic þe þurhhæle þin licsare mid þam sundorcræftas þære ealdaþ æ!_

Ginny's chest rose as she took in a deep breath and Riddle looked murderous "What did you do!?" he asked angrily stepping forward as though he were about to drag Merlin away from her.

"_Astrice!_" Riddle flew back into the feet of the stone statue of Slytherin.

"You haven't saved her!" he yelled as he stood up from where Merlin had pushed him "you've only given her a few more minutes!"

"Stay away!" Merlin warned keeping his eyes on Riddle. Neither noticed that Harry had just pulled the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat or that he was now facing it head on brandishing the blade in a way that clearly showed he knew nothing of sword play.

They kept their stale mate, though it was more than that, it was a silent battle. Merlin could feel the pull on Ginny's soul growing stronger, he focused his magic, trying to fight Riddle as he tried to steal her life.

It kept going, the two sorcerers fighting a silent battle until they heard the basilisk cry yet again, this time, a fatal cry. Harry stood on top of Slytherin's statue, sword thrust in to the basilisk's head through its open mouth. He pulled it out and the great creature fell with a loud resounding boom that Merlin was sure they could have heard from the castle.

"Harry!" Merlin yelled as the boy clumsily—too clumsily for Harry—made his way back down to the ground next to Merlin and Ginny. Merlin felt his strength coming back as the creature lost all focus in its eyes and slowly died.

His grip on her soul was more solid and he felt her being pulled back into her body. Riddle's face contorted in rage "How dare you!"

He pointed Harry's wand straight at Merlin's chest, the only way he could get Ginny's soul being to make Merlin let it go.

A spell on the tip of his tongue, his wand brandished, he let out a scream of pain as he clutched his chest where a beam of light was breaking through. Both Merlin and Riddle looked over at Harry who was clutching a bloody basilisk fang and holding it down inside of the diary, black ink oozing out like blood.

"NO!" he screamed pointing the wand at Harry but the boy stabbed the book yet again making him drop the wand in pain. Seeing that his plan was working, Harry shut the diary and stabbed the fang straight through the cover, black ink squirting out as Riddle dissolved into a flash of light.

Ginny woke up then and Merlin quickly took his hands away from her as she looked right at Harry "Harry—_oh, _Harry!—It was me, I opened the Chamber, really, I didn't meant too, Riddle, he—"

"It's alright Ginny" Harry said softly looking down at his bloody arm, "Riddle's finished, Him _and _the basilisk"

"Harry! Your arm!" Merlin said looking from the fang to the boy's bloody arm finally understanding why he was so clumsy as he came down from the statue "Basilisk's are poisonous!"

Ginny looked ready to cry as she too understood what Merlin had said and Harry smiled ruefully, "I was hoping you wouldn't know that"

"Don't you think we would have noticed if you just randomly died?" Merlin asked exasperated moving over to Harry and taking his arm in his hands.

Once again he let his eyes flash gold and he said the words he had never heard before but knew were right "_Gestepe hole! Þurhhæle"_

The skin knit itself back together before their eyes and Harry instantly regained his normal color having been pale before though Merlin had not noticed until he had healed him. Harry and Ginny both gaped at the healed wound Harry mumbling a soft "Wow!"

"We need to get out of here now" Merlin reminded them as they continued to stare at Harry's arm "any ideas?"

"Ron's supposed to be back at the beginning of the tunnel moving the rocks out of the way so we can leave" Harry said finally looking away from his arm.

Merlin nodded in relief and the three students made their way out of the chamber.

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**Don't worry guys, it's not over just yet, Merlin isn't the only one that can get himself into trouble, Arthur was worried when he couldn't find Merlin so of course he goes to look in the wrong place. BAMF Merlin in the chapter after the next, please review and tell me how you think this chapter turned out. **


	19. Chapter 19

Merlin grabbed the two wands while Harry grabbed Riddle's diary and helped a now sobbing Ginny to her feet. She was crying into Harry's shoulder about how she was scared of what her mom and dad would think and about being expelled. Merlin let Harry try and cheer her up, not sure how to comfort her he walked ahead until they found Ron and Lockhart.

Fawkes had followed as well and when they found they had no way to get back up the shoot they had fallen down to get into the tunnels, he offered them his tail so that he could fly them out. Lockhart was talking about weird things asking if they lived down here and calling Fawkes a pretty bird. Harry finally explained that he had been hit with his own memory charm and had lost his memories.

They made it out of the tunnels to land back in the girl's bathroom. Ron pulled Ginny into a hug so that she could cry against his shoulder as they continued to follow Fawkes who was trying to lead them somewhere.

The five of them followed the bright red phoenix up to Professor McGonagall's door where they found Morgana and Gwen sitting against the wall, both in tears. Morgana was the first to look up and when she did she screamed "Merlin!"

She launched herself into her brother's arms and held onto him like she was sure he was going to disappear, Gwen came up behind her and did the same, both girls hanging on to him and crying.

"What!?" he asked as he tried to calm them down by rubbing soothing circles on their backs.

"We thought the monster killed you" Gwen finally said past her tears, "Dumbledore came back after he got a letter saying the monster was a basilisk!"

"Gaius" Merlin sighed happy to know the old man's letters had made it to the right people. Morgana pulled back and looked up at him with tears still filling her eyes.

"Arthur was so worried when he couldn't find you Merlin—"

"Sorry, I really didn't have time to tell him where I was going, getting kidnapped is sort of a sudden kind of thing, you don't usually plan it ahead of time you know"

Ginny chuckled behind her own sobs as Harry and Ron rolled their eyes at Merlin's attempt at a joke. Morgana slapped his chest.

"Merlin! He went looking for you" she said like that should make him understand the problem.

"I didn't see him anywhere in the tunnels…" he said uncertainly.

Gwen looked apprehensively at Harry and Ron, then even more so at Lockhart who was talking nonsense to one of the portraits along the wall "… they got Freya to lead them, the whole Quidditch team, to wherever it is the two of you sneak off to. Merlin, they went into the Forbidden Forest!"

Merlin's eyes widened in horror "WHAT!?"

He did not give them a chance to answer before he started running toward the closet way out of the castle.

By the time the student body had returned to the Great Hall for lunch, Arthur was worried. He had not seen Merlin since breakfast, and since they had _every_ class together, it was hard for Arthur not to worry.

Gwaine had grown quiet, which was never a good sign, and his foot kept tapping the ground in an annoying fast tempo. "What if the monster got him?"

"He's fine, Gwaine" Arthur said with more conviction than he felt.

"Arthur…" Arthur looked up to see Morgana's worried face looking at him.

"Morgana?" he asked surprised, she usually did not walk over to the Gryffindor table to talk to them.

"Where's Merlin, Arthur?" her voice was strained like she was trying not to cry.

"Did you have another nightmare?" he asked concerned as Gwaine watched on confused.

"Yes! Now where is Merlin?" she nearly screamed. Gwen, hearing her friend's frantic yell looked over to see them standing together, Morgana looking ready to cry, it took no time at all before she was next to her, Lance and Leon on Gwen's heels.

"What's going on Morgana?" Gwen asked putting her arm around the panicking girl.

"I need to see Merlin, I need to know he's okay, I had… I had another nightmare, Arthur, he's in trouble again!" she cried sinking into Gwen's embrace.

Arthur stood up and noticed that Percy and Elyan had walked over as well, Gwaine stood with them "Probably not the best time to tell you this, but we haven't seen Merlin since breakfast"

Arthur face palmed as everyone turned to look at Gwaine with horror stricken faces. Gwen moaning out a pitiful "since _breakfast_?".

Morgana pulled out of Gwen's hug and grabbed Arthur by his robes and pulled him closer to her hissing through her teeth "Why aren't you looking for him!?"

Gwaine had to stifle a chuckle at Arthur's face which was contorted in fear of his sister. "I was kind of assuming he snuck off with Freya again, I hoped he'd be back by now"

Gwen's eyes got wide "Freya's at the table Arthur"

They turned as a large group to look at the small first year who was eating a sandwich, or she was until she noticed eight people staring at her. She put the sandwich down as she stared fearfully back at the group which was now moving toward her, Arthur and Morgana in the lead.

"Freya, do you know where Merlin is?" Morgana demanded when they came up next to her.

"N-n-no, why would he be with me?" she asked trying to sink down into her seat. Gwen broke away from the group and put an arm around the frightened girl who calmed slightly at her gentle touch.

"We need to know where Merlin is Freya, we haven't seen him since this morning. I was hoping that you would know where he went, the two of you used to sneak off together during our Quidditch practice… where did you go?" Gwen asked gently.

Freya visibly paled and shook her head "He wouldn't go there, not by himself… not without me…" she trailed off quietly.

Lance walked up to her and asked gently "Where Freya? Why wouldn't he go there by himself?"

She looked like she wanted to cry but she held it in "…the Forest…"

Arthur and Gwaine both cursed under their breath, the others just looked horrified when Leon asked "you've been going into the Forest?"

Freya nodded weakly "I used to go in by myself, but Merlin found me one day and we found this spot where nothing ever seemed to come… it was just us…" Arthur could see she was leaving something out but he did not comment on it "until the last time. There was something in there, I don't know what… it was fast… fast and big." She shook her head like she was trying to get rid of the memory "he made me promised not to go back by myself… I thought that meant he wouldn't either"

Arthur rolled his eyes _Of course that did not mean him._

"Can you tell us where the two of you would go?" he asked gently not wanting to scare her any more than she already was.

She shook her head sadly, but looked up at him with deep resolve in her eyes "I can take you"

Arthur shook his own head "It's too dangerous, I can't take you in there"

She stood up from where she was sitting with Gwen to stand in front of him. Even though he had to look down to meet her eyes, the determination in them made it seem like they were the same height "If he's in there, and if he's in trouble, I have to help!"

"Freya…" he started but was cut off by Gwaine.

"C'mon Princess, if Merlin is out there with whatever they saw, he probably doesn't have time for you to be arguing with our only guide"

Percy stepped up next to Gwaine "We'll protect her Arthur"

He looked around at all his friends who were nodding their agreement, then he stopped at Morgana and Gwen. "Not you two—don't interrupt Morgana, I have a reason—if Merlin isn't in there, if he's somewhere in the castle, I need you to find him, I need someone to stay here just in case. I also need someone to tell a teacher if we aren't back by midnight"

"Midnight's a long time to wait to see if you're gone" Gwen said concerned.

"We'll be back by then, so don't worry" he reassured her then looked at the others "let's sneak out to the forest"

It was not as hard as Arthur had imagined to sneak out of the school, but of course the teachers were all preoccupied with something all the one's they had seen that day looked as though somebody had died. Arthur really hoped that he was bad at reading faces.

They walked right down to the forest, no one stopped them, and Freya led them right in saying quietly "you should probably go ahead and get out your wands. Usually nothing ever came onto the path, but nothing ever came into the clearing either…"

Arthur nodded even though the girl had her back to him and took out his wand, the rustle of robes from behind him told him that the others were getting theirs out as well.

She led them along the path for what felt like at least half an hour before she veered off the path to the right and led them into a large clearing with giant bolder in the center with sunlight beating down on the top of it making something he could not make out through the light shine in their eyes.

The next thing he noticed, and probably the thing he should have noticed first, was that the entire clearing was covered in spider webs. The thin strands weaved back and forth between the trees like they were tying them together, or like they were…

"It looks like a cave" whispered Gwaine. Arthur looked up at the top of the clearing to see most of it covered in webs except for a small space where the light was shining down onto the rock.

"It's a nest" amended Freya who was now standing completely still except for the small tremors that were traveling down her small frame.

Ahead of them, just beyond the tree line, they heard thousands of small clicks like chattering birds, though the sound was angry. Beyond the clicks, Arthur was sure he could make out the hum of several small voices talking at once though he could not tell what any were saying, at least not until one booming voice broke out over the others.

"Who are you and why do you trespass on our home?" it asked. The voice came from above them, somewhere in the web as its owner likely looked down on them, ready to pounce.

Arthur shook off his fear knowing that he was the one who had demanded to come here and that he should be the one to speak and looked up in the general direction of the voice. "We're students, from the castle. We came looking for our friend, we think he got lost in the forest… have you seen him?"

The voice spoke again but this time from the other side of the web "I have seen no humans in my part of the forest. Some days ago my father was visited by two younglings like yourself, but they… left" he said the last part with a hint of disappointment that did little to reassure Arthur.

"There are more?" he asked as the clicking rose in volume again making him sure that there must be at least a hundred here.

"My clan broke away from my fathers. He is old and he does not care that there are other creatures in this forest that dare to take our land. Our hunting land!" The clicks grew in excitement as though cheering their new leader on.

"But now you will have to compete with your father for food" Arthur pointed out.

"True, but he is not hard to defeat, he couldn't even catch two small children. Now, though, I will show my clan that I can provide much better than our father could" two loud_ thuds _echoed from behind them and they whirled around to see two spiders larger than an average dog hissing at them "Now my brothers, _eat!_"

Freya was the first to react brandishing her wand and yelling "_Flipendo!_"

One of the spiders flew back into a tree laying dazed under the branches as the other continued to move forward.

"_Expelliarmus_" Gwaine cried brandishing his own wand at the other arachnid. A jet of red light hit the creature between its eight eyes pushing it back slightly but otherwise doing nothing.

"That's a disarming charm Gwaine, it's not holding anything!" Arthur yelled exasperated.

"I don't see you coming up with any good ideas, Princess" Gwaine shouted back as the spider pushed forward and all the kids walked backward still pointing their wands. Arthur bumped into something solid, and turned to see that he was up against the lard bolder he had seen when they had come into the clearing.

Now that he was up against it, Arthur could see what the sunlight had been dancing off of. A sword stuck deep into the middle of the great rock, its hilt engraved with gold, the blade, or what he could see of it, shining with a burnished gleam of a new sword though he doubted it could be very new.

Sucked in by the swords beauty, he became oblivious to the giant spiders that had him and his friends cornered against this rock, next to this beautiful sword. Had he given it a moment's thought, he would not have reached out to grab the sword, but right then, he was not thinking, instead he was listening to his instincts. Those instincts found it completely normal for his hand to wrap around the hilt of this bright, gleaming sword. They found it right when he pulled the sword free and that it responded by gliding out without any real resistance from the stone. It felt like unsheathing it from a protective case instead of releasing it from an unrelenting prison cell as it should have.

The world came back to him suddenly, pulling him out of the trance the sword had lulled him in too. More spiders were surrounding his friends, they all had their wands out sending spell after spell into the throng of hungry arachnids.

He saw one spider arch its leg at Freya knocking her wand out of her hand, ready to take her from the group before her eyes glowing that familiar gold, the gold Merlin's eyes would turn, and the spider erupted in flames.

It screamed and ran from the group writhing in pain as the fire consumed its body. Freya's eyes were opened wide in fear though when another spider came toward her, she regained her focus. Once again her eyes lit up in that unnatural light, this time he could see it was on purpose though, and another spider fell to flames. Wand forgotten, Freya began to send her magical fire at every spider she could, though Arthur thought he could see her losing energy each time she used the spell.

The others were all holding their own sending continuous spells into the mob, sometimes sending it at a spider that had gotten too close to one of the others who had not noticed. They were working as a team in a way that bespoke of years of practice together, in more than just practice on the Quidditch field, it was like they each other so well, they did not have to worry about their own backs, trusting the others would take care of them.

Arthur smiled slightly at the obvious bond between the boys before hefting the sword in his hand and walking up next to them. No one asked where he had gotten a sword or even why he was wielding it, though it was not like they had much time too.

He stood at the front of their circle waiting for one of the spiders to attack, which did not take long, when it came close, he shifted his weight and brought _his_ sword down into the spider's head. Ooze leaked out of the laceration when he pulled the sword back and the spider fell over, legs twitching slightly before it became completely still.

Arthur smiled brightly at having found an effective weapon to use against the creatures and lifted his sword again falling into a stance he had no idea he knew but felt natural to him as though he had been doing it all his life. More spiders pressed into the front line of their attack and Arthur sliced away at them, Freya continued to set fire to the ones that she could, and the Knights kept the others at bay until Arthur was ready for more.

He was quickly tiring out but he pushed his body on, there was no way he could quit without forfeiting their lives to the hairy creatures and he refused to let that happen. Freya too was obviously exhausting herself, but like him, she refused to quit.

"We need another sword" Lance suggested as one of his spells reflected off its intended target and into the eye of another.

"I'm up for suggestions" Arthur panted as he lifted his sword from another slain foe. Sweat was leaking into his eyes making them burn but he had no time to wipe it away as another spider came toward him.

"Maybe I can…" Lance was interrupted as a loud hissing from behind them had all of the arachnids stopping in their tracks. The students full of curiosity had to look as well, though when they did they wished they had not.

"Bad suggestion Lance" Gwaine said humorlessly as they all looked at a large army of giant scorpions that rivaled the spiders in size.

"Serkets" Freya said in an awed and fearful voice just as the one at the front jumped into the clearing, claws snapping and its tail ready to sting anything that came into range.

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**I have to ask, did you see that coming? I really want to know what you thought so, please review. And if you're wondering why Excalibur magically ended up in the rock, well you'll just have to wait, but it will be explained. By the way, Fluffy will be making an appearance the next chapter, and I will explain why Freya did not call him already. **


	20. Chapter 20

Merlin was racing over the fallen limbs and logs that lay on the path, he jumped over roots and ducked under low hanging branches. He could hear Gwen and Morgana panting as they tried to keep up with him.

Both let out stifled screams as the sound of large feet pounding against the earth came closer though they did not stop continuing to follow Merlin even when a large, three headed dog popped out of the trees to gallop next to them each face showing a look of contentment as he ran.

"Hey Fluffy, find Freya okay?" he said to the dog who barked happily and ran ahead of the three students.

"Merlin!" Morgana called.

"He's cool" Merlin said over his shoulder "once he got out of the castle he calmed down a whole lot"

"That thing was in the castle?!" Gwen exclaimed.

"Oh, right… guess you didn't know that bit. He was guarding the stone last year, the one Quirrell wanted. He belongs to Hagrid, of course. Freya and I have been coming out here to see him since before Christmas"

"You've been coming out here to see a three headed dog?" Morgana asked exasperated "and you wonder why everyone continuously tells you to be careful"

"Point taken" Merlin laughed but was interrupted when Fluffy let out a fierce bark and began to run faster "We have to hurry, they're in trouble"

They stopped talking and followed the large dog through the trail and to the same clearing that Merlin and Freya had come to meet him so many times before. It was covered in spider webs and they could hear the sound of angry clicking and hissing coming inside of the silky cave. Another sound split the air as someone, a girl, screamed.

"Freya!" Merlin yelled accompanied by all three of Fluffy's heads barking in anger and the two leapt through the opening of the cave. The first thought that Merlin had when he saw the scene before him was _BUGS! Giant bugs!_

Spiders the size of large dogs and scorpions larger than that were biting, snapping, and stinging each other. Furious hisses and clicks resounded through the large web a single voice clikcking out as one of the larger spiders spoke "_This is our territory, they are our prey. Leave!"_

The scorpions seemed unable to speak though their message was clear _We're not leaving!_

Between the two armies of oversized bugs stood six people, five of which were holding out their wands sending spell after spell at the advancing arachnids to keep them at bay while one stood in the center with a gleaming sword in hand. He whipped the weapon down on each advisory that approached him like he had been training to do as much his whole life, though Merlin knew for a fact that he had not having spent his whole life with the boy.

"Where'd he get a sword?" Morgana wondered aloud just as Fluffy bounded into the fray of battling arachnids and positioning himself protectively in front of something before viciously fighting back. Merlin looked at Fluffy's feet to see a raven-haired girl lying on the ground having just been knocked back by something strong enough to take her breath away.

"Freya!" Merlin called out worriedly but that turned out to be the wrong thing to do as it caught the attention of the warring armies. Five large bugs, two spiders and three scorpions, charged from the rest of the group straight towards them.

Morgana and Gwen raised their wands prepared t fight, but Merlin had already noticed how ineffective the five students own magic was against the large bugs. Instead, he raised both hands and pointed his palms at the oncoming monsters.

""Ic her aciege ænne windræs! Færblæd wawe! Windræs ungetermed: gehiere! Ic ðe bebiede mid ealle strangnesse ðæt ðu geblæwest ond sierest strange! Ge spurne þeos hægtesse!" he chanted and felt his eyes flash gold as a large whirlwind appeared in front of him, he watched it sweeping the large creatures off of their feet and into the air and directed it with his outstretched hands to throw them back into the throng of attacking arachnids.

By chance, he landed the five creatures in the middle of a group of spiders all of which immediately turned on the scorpions once they realized they had them surrounded. The scorpions did not last long.

He heard Morgana and Gwen's expressions of surprise at how powerful that spell at been, and in truth he was surprised himself though he had no time to think about it at the moment. An idea had just occurred to him, he just needed to let the others know.

Again he said the spell and let his eyes flash, the large whirlwind picking up once more, this time he directed the powerful gust of wind in a path right towards Fluffy and Freya. Freya had finally regained her feet and Merlin saw with some surprised that her own eyes were glowing that golden light as random arachnids burst into flame.

He walked behind his windstorm until he was standing next to Freya and Fluffy, Gwen and Morgana having followed very close behind him. When he reached the first-year's side he guided the windstorm in a circle around them to blow away the arachnids that had been trying to get to Freya and Fluffy.

"Merlin!" she cried happily and leapt into his arms and hugging him fiercely. "I'm so sorry I came out here, I thought this is where you went, we were all so worried when you went missing"

"It's okay Freya, but we need to get out of here" he said soothingly.

"Any ideas?" she asked breaking the hug to look up at him.

A smile lit up his face just as Morgana screamed. They all whirled around to see one of the serkets had snuck up on them after the whirlwind had died and was bringing its tail down straight at Morgana who had lifted her hands on instinct. Merlin watched in amazement as his sisters eyes turned that characteristic gold that accompanied the use of the strange magic he seemed to have a knack for. The tail erupted in flame and the creature writhed in agony taking its stinger away from the girl as it twisted and shook its body as it was engulfed in flames.

If Merlin had been surprised, then Morgana was going into shock over what she had just done. She stopped and slowly lowered her hands looking at them in disbelief mumbling "did I do that…."

Merlin put his hand on her shoulder and met her frightened eyes "Look Morgana, it's okay, you did _good_, but we need to find a way out of here now"

She nodded numbly and Merlin realized that was as good as he would get from her for a while. He turned to the other two, Fluffy keeping a protective stance over the four students attacking anything that came close.

"I'm going to create another whirlwind-" he started already lifting his hands to cast the spell.

"Merlin! How much magic does that spell take?" Freya asked suddenly.

Surprised by her question he lowered her hands to look at her questioningly "What do you mean?"

"I mean, I've been casting fire spells for an hour now, I'm about to pass out! That spell is way more powerful than what I've been doing, are you sure you can do it again?"

He smiled in comprehension "Yeah, I can do it, but it's probably the last old spell I'll be able to do without some rest first".

"Will you even be able to walk?" Gwen asked now noticing how her friend was panting and that he looked even more pale than normal.

"Not sure really, I've never tried this before" he admitted sheepishly "but does it really matter?"

"Of course it matters-" Gwen started but he cut her off.

"If I don't, then it's very unlikely we're all going to get out of here" he said in a somber voice and Gwen looked over to see Arthur slicing into the thick exoskeleton of another serket. She nodded her head grimly. "When I start the spell I'll try and get the two armies mixed up enough they'll be too distracted to care that we're escaping"

All three girls nodded their heads and he raised his hands again "make sure they start running for the exit as soon as I open up a path, the same for you three, run as soon as you can. Freya, make sure Fluffy follows you" she nodded her head and put a hand on Fluffy's chest and he grunted in response.

He let his eyes flash in their familiar way as he once again chanted the spell ""Ic her aciege ænne windræs! Færblæd wawe! Windræs ungetermed: gehiere! Ic ðe bebiede mid ealle strangnesse ðæt ðu geblæwest ond sierest strange! Ge spurne þeos hægtesse!"

A large whirlwind, larger than the last two the young boy had conjured before, slowly formed in the middle of the clearing right in front of the six boys who were still fending off the large arachnids. The windstorm flew through the army of bugs picking up insects left and right throwing them into the others and pulling them away from the boys.

Merlin had been worried that the six boys would be too surprised to run when they saw the storm sweep away their enemies but was happy to see they took their chance to run as soon as they saw it. Freya and the other girls along with the large dog began running as well as soon as they saw their friends coming.

Merlin stood his ground keeping up the enchantment until his friends had made it to the entrance. With a sigh of relief, the boy let the spell die and turned to run to where his friends were waiting.

Fluffy barked happily as it became clear that Merlin would make it out of the giant web when a large sider jumped onto the ground right in front of him. _"Little warlock, don't think your tricks are enough to get away from me"_

The leader of the new clan of spiders stood on his eight legs glaring down at Merlin with his eight beady eyes and Merlin was sure he was going to die. He closed his eyes waiting for those giant pincers to end his life when a heartrending scream emitted from the beast.

He opened his eyes to see Arthur standing over the slain spider as he pulled his sword from its twitching body. "Where in the hell have you been _Mer_lin?"

Merlin smiled widely in his normal goofy way saying "Chamber of Secrets you prat, you were fighting the wrong monsters"

Arthur rolled his eyes "that's the thanks I get for coming to save your sorry backside?"

"It's going to be my dead backside if we don't get out of here, you did just kill the spider's leader you know"

"Shut up Merlin" Arthur said but the two were already running back towards their friends, toward the path, and towards Hogwarts.

* * *

"Where on Earth have the ten of you been!? And why is Fluffy with you? And is that a sword in your hand Pendragon?" McGonagall cried as she raced out of the castle.

Merlin was rubbing his neck sheepishly while everyone else was wearing grins of triumph Gwaine going so far as to say "we went for a hike, found some bugs, found a sword, then Merlin came along and killed some of the bugs that we couldn't. Then he told us he had been in the Chamber of Secrets and the whole reason we went for that little hike is 'cause we thought he was in there"

McGonagall looked like her eyes were about to pop out of her head "You what?!"

* * *

In the end McGonagall took the ten students to Professor Dumbledore and he got the entire story from them. He was quiet after they had done and was staring at each of them in turn before he turned to Arthur.

"May I see your sword?" Arthur nodded and handed the sword to the headmaster who looked it over through his half-moon spectacles "You said you pulled it from a stone?"

Arthur nodded his head but said nothing as Merlin replied "I've never seen that sword there before sir, and Freya and I have been there quite a few times" the last part he said sheepishly.

Dumledore smiled "I think I can make an exception this once, you were after all taking care of the pet of our gamekeeper, he has been quite worried about him for some time you know"

"We've been meaning to tell him Professor, but things kept coming up" Freya said pittifully.

"Well, you will get your chance tonight at the feast, now that the true culprit behind the attacks has been found out, he has been released from Azkaban and will be returning shortly" Freya beamed at the good news.

Dumbledore turned back to Arthur "Do you know what this inscription on the blade says?"

Arthur shook his head "no sir"

Dumbledore smiled knowingly before saying "It reads on one side 'Take me up' and on the other 'Cast me away'"

All ten kids stared at the man in confusion and Merlin was the first to ask "What does that mean?"

Dumbledore shrugged his shoulders but his eyes twinkled in amusement "I'm sure I have no idea. That you found in a stone however, is quite interesting considering your namesake"

Arthur's eyes donned comprehension widening comically "the sword in the stone?"

The other nine student's eyes widened along with his and Merlin went so far as to face palm.

"Perhaps the reason you and Miss Donnelly had not seen the sword before is because it did not appear until it felt the presence of its rightful owner. There are some such magical objects in the world." The ten students looked at each other in amazement that this magical sword had picked Arthur as its owner.

"Now, why don't you go down to the feast, and Arthur, you may store your sword in my office until it is time for you to go back home. I assure you it will be perfectly safe"

"Thank you Professor" he said gratefully before leading their group out of the office and towards the feast.

The feast was the best Merlin had ever experienced, almost everyone was in their pajamas and it seemed like it was going to last all night. Hagrid got back around three in the morning and he was smiling broadly as he stated loudly, "Fluffy's back". Merlin and Freya took that chance to tell them that the dog had never been far away. Hagrid was understanding and said that he was happy the dog had made some knew friends.

This had prompted Merlin's curiosity about why Freya had not called Fluffy when they had went out to look for him. She explained that she was scared about Arthur and the other's reaction to a large three headed dog, when she really needed him, it had been too late to call.

Dumbledore announced around midnight that Gryffindor was the winner of the House Cup yet again, and Professor McGonagall added to that that the exams for that year had been canceled. Hermione, who along with the other victims had been revived, was horrified to hear that news.

The last few weeks of school were great, Defense Against the Dark Arts had been canceled due to Lockhart losing his memories and for the same reason they were out of a teacher for the next year. The ten friends were happy to have time to relax and spent most of their time by the lake or on the Quidditch pitch trying to refine their skills for the next year. Arthur made the whole team promise to practice as much as they could and they all agreed.

The train ride back to the mortal world was short, or it felt that way to Merlin. Arthur too seemed sad to see it ending. "I understand why you wouldn't want to come back, and I'm sorry I wasn't there for you"

"It wasn't your fault Arthur" Merlin said astounded the boy thought that way.

"Maybe not, but I should have been with you, I know how much trouble you get in by yourself" he looked at his brother mischievously.

"You're the one who walked in on a territory battle between two giant species of arachnids" countered Merlin.

"To find you" he threw back.

"I wasn't even there" Merlin said.

"No, you were too busy getting kidnapped, _again!"_

Merlin shrugged having no response for that. Arthur put a hand on his brother's shoulder his voice becoming more serious "Write me and let me know you're okay, and come and visit alright?"

Merlin smiled somberly "Sure"

The two gave each other a one-armed hug before walking through the portal to the muggle world where their guardians were waiting.

* * *

**And so ends Book2 of Merlin at Hogwarts. I hope you all have enjoyed this book and I hope you will read my next sequel, can you guess what its going to be called? That's right, Merlin at Hogwarts Book 3! It is my goal to go through all seven books and I hope my loyal readers will stick with me until I get through them all. In book 3 I plan to bring in at least two more characters from the show, I will not have Sirius Black being after Merlin, nor will the dementors effect him in the way that they do Harry, but there will be a second escapee from Azkaban but that is the last hint I'm giving you. Please R&R, I'm pretty sure it makes me write faster. **


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